Leaving Home
by totalyborringname
Summary: The rise of the greatest trainer of all time through the eyes of her most trusted friends. Now read the story that one dude keeps talking about.
1. My Trainer

**Author's note:**

**Well, everyone else was doing this. I'm not really sure what to put here. I guess it's got to be something cool to make you want to read and review. How about a joke. **

'**A Russian giraffe, a man with a parrot and a dog that could only say grapes walked into a bar. The bartender looked up and said, "What is this? Some kind of joke!"'**

**Did that do it? Oh well, it was worth a shot. Anyways, please enjoy and review. Thank you.**

* * *

**My Trainer**

Pride flooded my senses. My heart started thumping faster even though that had seemed impossible just a few moments before. I wanted to say something cool, something classy, and something that would last forever in our minds. I don't know wither I was too emotional or maybe I had used up all my good lines all ready. Maybe I just didn't have time to think of one that would fit this situation. The only thing I could do was look. Look and marvel. To tell you the truth it wasn't my moment to say something any ways. It was hers. Sure I had fought my best, we all did, but I recognized the true victor of this battle.

I find myself admiring her. I am the closest one to her in many ways. She is calm and yet she appears disturbed, unsettled, with almost like a hungry look. She is ready for more. All that has happened to us and she is ready for more.

I'm not upset. I almost expect it. That's just the way she is. That's the person she has always been from the beginning.

And with that though I find myself thinking back, back to those first adventures, first pokemon, first battles, first laughs and tears. And that first day, the day she truly became my trainer.

* * *

I hate pokeballs. I never did like them. Yeah, yeah, who cares right? All pokemon say that. How convenient, unoriginal, etc. well sorry. I spent most of my pup hood outside of the sight of one. Needless to say, but I'll say it anyway; my first experience was anything but pleasant. That was the reason I bit him. I was defending myself from discomfort. Honestly, it's not like I wished harm to befall on the poor guy.

"Aaahhh!" three firm grips on my fur told me I wasn't going to win this fight but at least I could take this humans hand with me. "Danged fur ball! Let go of me!"

My jaw is not exactly made for tearing things to shreds so a few seconds latter they had me in their power. I tried a few wiggling techniques, a tail wag but it was useless.

"Don't just stand there Derf! Shove the monster in a blender!"

The human called Derf opened a cage and shoved my furry behind in. "I hope this is what you meant Professor."

"I'm not joking! That's the most irritable eevee I've ever had to deal with. I don't care what Tracks said about him, that thing's useless."

Derf laughed. Then he opened a drawer and grabbed some tape. "This eevee was very expensive and by the look of your hand I can see why. Here, let's get that fixed.

I watched the Professor hold out his now mangled right hand. _That'll teach you! You freaking primeape!_ I thought. _No one puts me into one of those!_ I would have screamed it at him but I knew he would only hear a little squeaky 'eevee!' Let's face it. Despite what I thought at the time I wasn't exactly the most ferocious pokemon, eevees generally aren't. However I wasn't going to spoil my victory by shouting out something that would sound almost cute to their ears.

"There, good as new. Didn't even break the skin. I should heal by the end of the day." Derf said.

"What a terrible way to start off the day. And it just had to be this day didn't it." The professor glanced in my direction so I puffed myself up, appearing as dangerous as I could. "Now what am I going to do? I can't give this pokemon to one of the children. Their parents will kill me."

Derf shrugged and glanced in my cage. "We had a huge group last year. The towns actually quite small now that all trainers fourteen and over are gone. Besides me, your grandson and a few others, I don't think there is anyone ready. And if we get desperate we can always use that pikachu you caught."

_If it hadn't been for you he wouldn't be worrying about pokemon right now! _I thought.

"That thing's almost as infuriating as this monster." Said the professor. "Why we have collected so many strangely behaved pokemon I can only-"

"Professor!" I changed my position and strained my head to see the new comer. He seemed to be a little older then Derf but far too young to be anyone important. The white clothing made him fit in with the others but his arrival seemed unexpected.

"Fred, I thought I told you to…"

"Professor!" Fred said, "The pokeballs aren't here. Neither is the special package."

"Well, the delivery girl must be late or something. There's no-"

"That's the thing Professor. I saw her. She hasn't even left town."

"What! I need those pokeballs here! Today! What dose she think she's doing!"

"Do you think it has anything to do with what you said to her the other day?" Derf sighed, "You were rather frank don't you think."

"That's no excuse! Fine, stay here you two. I'm going to go talk to her." With that my victim left my sight.

"That's the eevee the professor bought for his grandson?" the last two turned their attention back to me. "Is he worth all the money Professor Oak paid?"

"It's strong. It should with all that work put into it. After all, it did come from a world renowned eevee farm. They even told us that this one's special and now I think I see what they meant." Said Derf, "But I think it's a little too feisty for Professor Oaks taste."

"Then what's he going to give the kid? Do you still get first pick of the rest of the usual beginners?"

"Knowing Blue, he'll pick the type advantage pokemon of whatever green picks. It's obvious that Green will pick bulbasaur." And you say that a pokeball hating pokemon is unoriginal.

"So what dose that leave you? Squirtle?"

"Or the pikachu." Said Derf. He motioned to the door and both began to exit the room. "But that's only if there is another child. Or if one shows up late." Before they left Fred reached up and shut off the light. Leaving me behind as if I didn't even exist.

I hate that. Just because I'm a pokemon doesn't mean I wouldn't enjoy a well lighted room. Of course there probably wouldn't be anything to see anyway. After all, I was in a freaking prison. The only stuff I could see was the view from a little slot in the box.

I tried to distract my mind so the claustrophobia wouldn't set in. Didn't last long. The fear started to push its way in as always. I curled up, trying to make it feel as if there was more space, then shut my eyes and started to shut down for a while. Maybe I would wake back up at the eevee farm. But even in my sleep I couldn't escape from the dark.

* * *

I was trapped. I couldn't even move. What had happened? It seemed that it was just a normal day. Did I do something wrong? What was I doing here alone and not with the others? Where was here?

So many questions that were directed to no one. No one was listening. No one was there. No one cared. My questions seemed to find there own answers. My fear seemed to fill the endless emptiness.

I wanted to go back to the farm, back with all my friends. I felt a longing to cry out but I could not even accomplish that. Why? And why did my world suddenly seem to be made up of unanswerable questions?

Of course at this time I knew nothing and in about five minuets I would be released from the darkness and into a light with far too many questions.

* * *

Even though my eyes were closed I sensed light. My mind shook itself from the nightmare and I flung my body toward the light. Derf entered just for a moment. My heart jumped when he grabbed a pokeball from a desk but he quickly left again. At least this time he left on the light. I strained my ears to find out the cause of the rush but I only caught Derf's hurried foot steps.

Along I could feel the fear start to return but I glued my eyes to the outside world, trying to trick my mind that I was out there and not stuck in timeout.

It may sound cliché but it really did seem like I was there forever. The only thing I could do was hope that those humans didn't have a long memory or I could be here for quite a while. I had never been a big trouble maker. The others had gotten jealous at times or I had sneaked into the other side of the farm or played a little to rough or ate another's food or had to show my friends who was the boss or … well, I might have been a big trouble maker but I had never been caught so there was no way they could have known that I was a big trouble maker. I never bit a human before and neither had any of the other eevees at the farm as far as I knew. I had no idea how long a time out like this would last.

Then the thought crept into my mind_, Maybe I never heard of a biting eevee because when one does-_

"Like heck I will!" Great, now I lost my train of thought. I heard the sounds of two angry people rushing towards me. "I've waited long enough! You can't just say no!"

"I told you, all the pokemon are gone." That one belonged to the Professor. "Maybe if you had done what you were supposed to do I would have saved you one. I had to send someone else to do your work."

"Come off it! You know you would have just given them all out while I was gone!" I tried to identify the voices. One was definitely the Professor but the other didn't belong to any of the other lab assistants I had just met. I never remembered hearing a voice like that and believe me I would remember this voice. It was low, definitely belonged to a boy, probably large for his age. However, this voice was… how can I put it right… scratchy? Like a board being dragged over gravel?

"I don't know what you're talking about." The Professor entered my view. He was scratching his right hand and looking back at the voice that was following him. At this point he was as red as a berry and looked as if his frustration attack could have killed. "Besides, you weren't ready to go anyways. You are still too young to leave!"

The last voice entered my view. It belonged to a small boy, to my surprise. I guess puberty came to just the one part because it seemed to be the only part that was under development at the time. The perfect word to describe him would be 'weak'. His face gave him away. Even with all the brown and oversized clothing he was wearing you could tell that there was no meat on those bones. Dressed as though it was winter, scarf and everything, the weakling planted his small feet down on the floor as if to make himself look more of a threat.

"I'm fourteen years old. So are all the rest of the brutes you sent off! And I'm the only one of them who can get through route one without a pokemon. How much more ready do you want?" the boy was clearly frustrated but seemed to be controlling himself. He wasn't at the point of red hot but stayed at a warm pink. Of course that could have been because he was too hot. He should have been with clothing like that. Did he think it made him look bigger? Who was he fooling? Anyone could tell that he was just full of empty air. The beanie did nothing for him except keep all that messy black hair from spreading all over his face. And his clothing seemed to be giving off a nasty smell that made me shrink back into my cage.

"Listen, if all this is because of-"

"No! No, lets not bring that up again." The Professor struggled for a moment to gain back control over his emotions. Then, with a big sigh, turned to the small boy. "Even if I wanted to sentence a pokemon to eternal misery under you supervision, I can't. My grandson took the charmander, Green took the bulbasure, Derf took the squirtle, I even managed to get rid of the rat. The only pokemon…"

The Professor froze and so did time. The room frosted over in a chilly silence. Even the boy seemed to feel the climate drop. Even though my body was warm, my soul shivered. Then slowly, very slowly, the professor turned his head over to me. My mind shrieked, _No! No! Not with that one! I'll never bite again! I'll be the perfect pokemon! Just don't put me with the clown!_

"Well…" the Professors mind was working so rapidly I'm sure I was psychic energy behind his eyes. "I seem to have been so worked today that I've forgotten one. A very… special pokemon."

The boy glanced in my direction, now realizing that I was there. He looked back at the professor accusingly. The Professor glanced back at the kid, then at me. A slow smile melted out onto his face.

"Why yes. Yes! It's perfect!" he started walking over to me. "You would be the perfect trainer for this pokemon! Why, you're a perfect match!" The Professor started to laugh. He grabbed my cage and flung open the door. I jumped out of the cage as furiously as possible, puffing out my fur and letting out a terrible "EEVEE!"

The child's eyes widened with fright. Stammering with fear at my absolute power she said, "A… an… an eevee! Bu… but Professor… that pokemon is extremely rare! You can't even find them in the wild anymore!" He snapped out of my spell and looked wide eyed at the Professor. "You would give me an eevee?"

"Oh, this just isn't any eevee. This is a very expensive, very highly recommended, and very highly valued in the battlefield eevee. With only the best treatment and care from the worlds best eevee farm. Yes, the best pedigree possible." The Professor put an arm around the kid and pointed at me. "Why, I wasn't going to give this away because I was afraid no trainer could handle it. It does have some what of a temper and it's stubborn but I think you can do it. Yes, I think you might have the perfect discipline to handle a pokemon like this."

"You really think so Professor?"

"Of course! I'm never wrong when it comes to placing pokemon with trainers that will work together to form the perfect team." The Professor opened a drawer and pulled out a pokeball. Handing it to the boy, his smile got even grander. "Trust me." He said.

The kid snatched the ball of extreme discomfort and, since I was momentarily stunned by the sudden sight of the sphere, snatched me up too. Pinning me against his left arm and smelly jacket, the boy reached out and clenched the Professors hand. "Thank you Professor. Thank you! You won't disappointed I promise! You'll see me and eevee go to high places in no time!"

The Professor let out a grown and took back his hand. He played with the bandage a little, then said, "Shouldn't you start by trying to catch up with the others?"

The boy bolted out of the room and I, an unwilling rider on this trip, went with him into the world.

Professor Oak watched the two young adventures as they set out. "I hope you both get gored by a ridon, losers. See if I ever give you a pokedex."

* * *

The first time I left the farm and into the outside world, let's just say it was anything but pleasant. I emerged from the darkness and into a large box. I had just enough sense to hear a door close behind me. My mind went into panic. Where in the farm was I? Was my imprisonment over or was it just the beginning?

After I calmed down a bit, I started looking around the box. Even though there were no holes that I could see, light filled the space. I was trying to identify the source when I heard it behind me.

"This one's not too bright, is he?"

I whirled around, and there facing me was a monster. He toward over me smiled and showed his tail in front of me. "I bet your glad I come with this huh?"

"It's on fire! Your tail's on fire!"

"Eh, it's not that impressive." I realized that we weren't alone. To my right stood some other large monster. Though he didn't look as scary as the first he definitely looked tougher.

"You wouldn't be saying that if we were in the dark now." The monster took his tail from my face and I got a better look at him. He was a red creature, clawed and had larger teeth then mine. The other seemed to be blue in this light and had a shell on his back that made him look bulky.

"Don't get started now," a third voice joined, "We'll have plenty of time to beat each other up when we get out." I blinked. This last was green and stood the proper way, on all fours. But that wasn't what amazed me. This thing had a plant growing out of his back. A plant!

"What do you mean?" I had finally got enough wits to talk. "What do you mean we'll beat each other up?"

"Told you he wasn't bright."

"We can't all have fire on our tails charmander."

"You said it bulbasaur."

The 'bulbasaur' focused his attention back on me. "I meant pokemon battles. You know, I hit you, you hit me, and one of us faints because we just got the pollen knocked out of us. Not that anything like that matters to the master."

Pokemon battles? They must have forgotten to put that in my training school course. I looked at my new 'friends'. I definitely wouldn't want to meet any one of them out on a shadowy corner were the humans don't look.

"Master?" I said.

"Yeah. You know some young talented human ready to become champ and willing to take us with him." The charmander said, "I can't wait, I know mine's going to be the best! We're going to the top for sure!"

"Not if I have to say anything about it!"

"Come off it squirtle, I know you have some kind of type advantage but it ain't gonna be enough against my power."

"Wait!" I was at the point of tears. What in the world is going on? Why am I here in a box with monsters that seem to be at the point of an all out brawl? "Masters? Battles? Types? What's happening? Why are we here? Where is the farm?"

The one called squirtle and the charmander laughed. The bulbasaure looked over at me again. "You really don't know? Didn't any one tell you what your purpose was?"

_My_ _purpose? What did this monster or anyone else know about my purpose? What did I know about my purpose?_ I strained my memory to find some for shadowing of what had happened to me. _Eat, drink, sleep, play… nope nothing._ I don't remember anything about fighting. Oh, I had fought. You had to, to be he first one to get to play in the playground. You had to race to be the first to get food. You had to be sneaky and smart if you wanted to have any real fun. But fighting for some master? Not ringing a bell.

All three of the monsters were wrapped back up in their own conversation again leaving me to my thoughts. _My purpose? Some master?_ Like I said. Not pleasant.

* * *

I began to wish I was back in that box. The human was still gripping me in one of his arms and running who knows where. It took all my concentration not to gag at the smell of the jacket so I couldn't even tell how long we were running. Nor could I start to think about escape.

And then we stopped. The grip loosened and I fell gracefully to the ground, which thankfully was covered with grass.

"Ouch!" I rolled back onto my feet and shook off the dust. "What do you think you're doing?" The human ignored me. With a smile he looked straight ahead. Following his gaze lead me to the first familiar sight I had seen in days, a pidgey. The monster looked at the human with razor sharp focus. I could only stand amazed. I had only seen them before while they where flying over the farm, but never up close like this. At the farm, we had heard stories of pidgeys that had landed in front of the eevee's of old. These eevees and their stories were legends and rumors now. No one I had ever met had actually seen one up close.

The pidgey looked at the human. I looked at it. The human looked at me. Silence filled the air. The world seemed still, there was no sound, no wind rushing through the hills, just that silent tension.

"So…uh…how's it going?" I said.

The pidgey looked like it lost its concentration for a moment. Then refocused on me. "Uh…just fine I guess." The pidgey cocked his head to the side. "So… what are you doing?"

"I'm not quite sure. Just standing here I guess."

"Maybe, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure you're supposed to fight me now."

_Fight? Wait; is this what those other monsters meant? I have to fight a pidgey?_ I studied my opponent. It was smaller then me. _Hey maybe this wouldn't be so bad! Think of all the bragging rights I'll have back at the farm!_

"Well, all right then. Yeah! Alright! We can do this!" I took a few brave steps over to the foe. Then the wings of the bird puffed out and the creature grew before my eyes! I rethought my strategy and came up with a new theory which gave me reason to take a few brave steps backwards.

"All right!" the human said, obviously unaware of the danger we had unexpectingly found ourselves in. "Eevee, tackle attack!"

"Wha…" Before I could even think about what tackle attack even meant, I felt something slam into my face. "Ouch Hey! Where did that come from?" I looked around for the cause of the pain. The only thing I saw was the pidgey, its wings moving, looking like they were slowing down.

"Gust." The human said. "A basic flying attack. It's a strong gust of wind."

"You mean that thing can hurt me with air?" I jerked my head back to the human. "Why didn't you tell me that before instead of shouting out some random-"

"Watch out!"

Too late of course. I turned back just in time to see the pidgey's wings reach top speed and send some invisible force at me. The same feeling washed over me. "Ouch! Hey, what's the big idea?"

"Eevee, you've got to keep your focus on your opponent! Now tackle!"

"What dose that even mean?" I could see the pidgey's wings start to go faster again. This was no time to think about the ramblings of an overdressed fool! I needed to take this situation into my own hands if I was to survive.

As I ran through the grass towards my opponent, I tried to think of any of the tricks I used against eevees at the farm would work against this pidgey. The wings spread even wider as I started to reach the pidgey. I wasn't going to make it before it finished its attack. Dodge left? Right? "No! I'll just go right through!"

The wind slammed into me with all its might but it couldn't stop me from reaching the pidgey. Drawing from my vast experience with wrestling with my friends, I decided that the direct approach would be best. I leaped into the air and put my paws before me. The pidgey was pushed onto its back and didn't try to get back up. It had fainted. I had won.

"That's showing it eevee! Nice tackle attack!"

"Wait," I said as I leaped off my prey, "Jumping into your opponent and trying to over power him with your strength is an actual technique?"

Ignoring me still, the human walked over to me. "But that shouldn't have been enough to knock it out."

"Excuse me! Are you insulting my awesome power?"

"Ah ha!" the human moved the pidgey from were it laid. I saw a small rock. "When you pushed it down it hit its head on this rock and went unconscious."

"Uh… yeah. Well, I didn't see you coming up with any ideas."

"It's not too bad. I've seen beginners do worse." The human looked at me and smiled. A strange sensation washed over me and I found myself in yet another flashback.

* * *

"That's not fair!" he grabbed my tail! He cheated! You all saw!" The would-be-first-eevee-to-the-food-line said.

"Doesn't matter! All's fair in games and food!" I said. Once again I found myself at the front of the line. I smiled. _I may not be the fastest eevee, but I sure am the sneakiest._ The others had been too wrapped up in playing that they hadn't realized that the sun was in mid air. The time of food was at hand. With a little help from one of my friends, I had developed the perfect system to get to the food first.

I looked back at my friends. They weren't right behind me but they were close enough for me to see their triumphant faces. The only thing better than that was the jealous faces of the others. What can I say? Nothing. But I could smile back at them just to rub it in. I had been first in the mad race to the food for quite some time now. In fact I was getting to be well known for it among humans and eevees.

The doors to the kitchen opened. This part was almost as good as being first. Being the closest to the doors gave me the best spot to smell the best of all smells. The warm air from the kitchen washed over me and gave the others close enough a nice consolation prize.

"Well, look who's first again." Not even all the pleasant smells in the world could hide the feeling that voice gave me.

It was Tracks, the head human of the farm. I say that because all the other humans seem to take a step back every time he entered the room. Even though he was old, he looked strong, very tall and well built. He must have beaten all the others into submission so hard that they still treated him as the boss. Tracks had always singled me out. Ever since the first time I saw him, he has been out to get me. Setting traps so I'd get caught doing something wrong, sending me to time out for the smallest of things and leaving me there forever.

"You should be careful about standing out." He said, "You never know what might happen. Remember, the tallest trees are always first to be cut down and cast into the fire." Then Tracks disappeared into the kitchen again. Hopefully he didn't contaminate the food as he passed by.

The workers brought out the food and, since I was first, gave me a double helping. I took in the scene as I walked back to the usual spot. A hundred eevees all lined up in front of the biggest doors on the building. Because of this, the grass in our play area was actually visible all the way up to the wall. I reached a small hill off to the left of the play place and toy area were my spot was.

My mood was darkened as I reached my friend. She seemed to sense my melancholy and we stayed silent as we ate. After a bite or two, she looked up to my right and smiled.

I glanced over my shoulder and couldn't help but smile too. It was Arazul, our favorite human.

"Well, look who's first again!" Funny how the same words said in a different way by a different person could have a completely different effect. "You two make quite a team."

I loved Arazul. That's the only way to put it. Of course every eevee did. He had a way to make every eevee feel like they were unique. He knew all the eevees by name. Heck, he's the one that named us.

Arazul set down next to us. He gave out a huge sigh then said, "I guess you two should be the first to hear the news."_ News?_ It must have been horrible news. Arazul looked down. He lost his smile and turned his brown eyes away from us towards the other eevees in line. "Remember how I told you I had family in Cinnabar?"

I remembered. Arazul had always talked about his family with us. They were a poor couple down in a place called Cinnabar Island. All the eevees had been fascinated by Arazul's stories about life out side of the farm. He told us about strange monsters and far off lands that he swore were too far away to be reached in one day; that one needed to sleep outside at times before they could reach it. Amazing. He told us that his family lived in such a place. He wanted to go down but he had lacked 'money', something he never quite explained to us. His parents lacked 'money' too so they couldn't bring Arazul down to live with them. Evidently, helping us gave him money. I wasn't quite sure how I gave him money, I was only aware of giving him my love and trust. For all I knew that could've been money.

"Well, the news is, I have enough to go now." It didn't make sense to me. _He has enough to go? What did that mean, to go now?_ "I'm leaving the farm."

My heart was crushed. Life without Arazul? What was going to become of the farm?

"Don't worry little guys." Arazul looked into my eyes, "Pretty soon you'll be off on your own adventures." Then he smiled at me. I couldn't describe what was in that smile. It's like there was some message that I should have understood. I didn't at the time but I would one day. But first Arazul's prediction had to come true.

* * *

_That smile,_ I thought,_ it's the same smile this guy's giving me now._ I shook my head from the memory and studied my 'master' a second time. He stopped studying the pidgey and walked towards me. He bent down and studied me too.

"Huh, you actually don't look too roughed up for some who took three gusts." He reached toward me, "It must have been a weak pidgey."

Shocked, I drew back, "What's that supposed to mean!" I said, "Only an eevee with my expertise could have knocked a pidgey in such a way that its head hit the rock! I was the one that stood bravely against the mighty pidgey and saved your life while you stood there shouting at me with that awful voice."

The human got back up. "Hey hey! Sorry! It's just that eevees don't usually take things out in one hit."

"I was the best at the farm!" I said, "Shows how much you know."

"She's right you know." I whirled around at the voice. _Another human_? "Eevees aren't exactly known for their attack power." Its was him! Derf! He was walking up to us, still dressed in his white lab coat. "Luck, that's all there was to it."

I was about to make a rude comment when my master cut me off, "For heavens sake Derf, I've only been gone for 10 minutes and the Professor already sent a spy."

"Don't get all worked up delivery girl. I'm just here to check up on your progress. I have to admit, I'm surprised that the eevee hasn't torn out you neck yet."

The girl jerked her hand to her up so fast that I thou- _delivery girl?_ I looked at the child with new eyes. "Oh jezz, it's a girl!"

"Ha, looks like your eevee's surprised too." Said Derf.

_Of course! That's why she was smaller then the others. It's a girl! My masters a freaking torchic!_

"Derf, you…" The girl's growl shifted to a whole new level. "Fine! You've made sure I wasn't dead so get lost!"

"Oh, I couldn't do that. I have a special message from the Professor."

"And that is…"

Derf looked at me, "He wants to see if that eevee and you really got what it takes."

_That doesn't sound good._ I saw the girl tense up and look at me. _Definitely not good._

"Go squirtle!"

A flash of light drew my attention toward the new comer. _No, it couldn't be! It's the same monster from before!_

The shelled monster looked at me. "Hey, if it isn't not-so-bright." He glanced at my master. "Wow, looks like you struck out."

Even though I wasn't thrilled with the girl I still felt the need to defend, "At least her name isn't Fred spelt backwards!"

"Hey! What's the matter with you?"

"U? Nothing's the matter with u. It's a good letter. I was talking about the losers behind the lumpy, blue blob!"

"That's going too far!"

"Well," said Derf, "It seems they've already taken a disliking to one another."

"That just makes this easier then!" said the girl.

Squirtle and I squared off. We were both in between our masters but nothing but anger existed between us. Except air and some ground I guess.

"Tail whip!" Both the scratchy and calm voice commanded.

"Hit him with my tail?" I turned back to my master, "How's that suppose to help!"

"Turn around!"

Too late, the soft slap on side told me that I was now the victim of he deadly tail swipe. Nothing big.

"Ha, what was that supposed to be?" I laughed out loud. _Why did I ever fear this guy? That was pathetic._

"Tail whip"

"Come on eevee!" the girl said, "Tail whip! Growl! Something! Please!"

"Growl? That's even more pathetic then the tail whip. How's that going to help anyone?" I felt another light pat on my side. "And what's the deal with you? Are you really taking this seriously?"

"Shows how much you know, fur ball."

"Tail whip!"

"Please! Tackle if you want! Heck just turn around and I'll be happy!"

"Oh no! You're right! I have to defend myself against the deadly tail whip!" Tap. "Oh no! I'm too late! There's no winning this now!"

"Oh boy, you're in for a surprise fluffy."

"Tail whip!"

"Ahhh! What do you think you're doing? You're going to get pulverized! Just listen to me!"

"Hey! How about listening to me!" I turned my anger to her. "I didn't ask to be in this situation! I didn't ask to be sold to some master either! I just want- hey! Cut that out." The squirtle backed away.

"You know," he said, "You should really listen to her. She knows what she is doing."

"And what's that!" I said.

"Tail whip." Derf said.

"Roar! Defense curl! I don't care!" She said

"The only thing she is dong is shouting at me. I don't even know what she is trying to tell me. She's just some stup- Ahhh!" I felt the rear end of the monster once again. "Look, just stop. You're making a fool out of yourself."

"The only one who's a fool here is you." The squirtle looked down at me. "You really should have listened. Now it's too late."

"Eevee! Brace yourself!"

"Tackle squirtle!"

"Too late! Too late for what? Going back to the farm? Listening to Arazul's stories? Being first t- wait, tackle?" Pain hit every cell in my body at once. I barley felt the sensation of flying through the air or hitting the ground. I laid there for a few seconds until the urge to throw up shook me out of shock. _Wha… wha..._ I struggled to get to my feet. "How… why…"

"When and where." The squirtle looked back at me. "You know, I was wrong. You didn't strike out. She did."

"Eevee." The human was by my side now. "Oh jezz. Hold on!"

"Pathetic." Derf looked at me and my master for a while, hen sighed. "Return squirtle." Light came out of the pokeball in Derf's hand and shot toward the monster.

"What Derf." My master said, "You're not going to finish him?"

"It would be pointless. It's already obvious who is going to win." The light of the pokeball, filling in the ball of accursed discomfort, shut. Derf put it to a belt at his side. "Besides, I've done just what the professor asked" he started to walk away.

"That's all, is it?" my master said.

Derf looked back at me and her. "You should have stayed with your job at the lab."

Once she was out of ear shot I heard the girl whisper, "You should leave."

* * *

Derf looked back at the two. The delivery girl left, her eevee in arms. They were heading towards viridian city. "You're still planning on going. Interesting through. Five tail whips and a tackle on an already gusted eevee and it didn't even faint. I guess it's special after all."

* * *

"It hurts! It hurts! It all hurts!" Even the cushiness of the stinky brown jacket wasn't enough to soften the pain I felt. "Even my fur hurts! How is that even possible? What in the world did that guy do to me?"

"Sorry."

The girls quite, scratch voice caused me to pause for a moment. Then I said, "Well, you should be! That pidgey must have done some super power."

"Tail whip," she interrupted, "It doesn't cause damage or at least not to your stamina. Instead it chips away at your defense making you more vulnerable to the following hits... I should have warned you instead of trying to just tell you what to do to avoid it."

Well this was new behavior. As far as I was concerned, I was the one that lost. She looked like took a bigger toll on her. Her head was slightly down, voice even lower then usual, and was frowning a little. I didn't understand. _I was the one that got my butt kicked. Why dose it look like she took a blow too?_

"Come to think of it," she said, "Just because you can know certain attack doesn't mean that you know their names." She seemed to be deep in thought. "Maybe it was a mistake to try to just go straight to Viridian city. Maybe I should have waited just a little."

I heard something moving, scratching around. The human must have heard it too because she dove into the nearest bush. Then she moved some of the leaves and we peered out into the open.

"No! Anything but that!" I said. It was a rattata. It wandered out into the opening, taking a few sniffs, probably to see if there was any prey in the area. "Not that thing again."

This wasn't the first time I'd encountered one of these viscous little monsters. Once during one of my adventures at the eevee farm. I had fought one. It was during one of my midnight sneaks, trying to figure out how to get into a kitchen when one attacked me. The thing was so fast and the room so dark I couldn't even hit it. Thankfully I escaped with my life. Later I had tried to warn the other eevees but they had just laughed it off. They thought that I had a bad dream or something.

"You see it right! I'm not crazy! They-" The rattata stared and looked in our direction. My master put her hand over my mouth.

"Rattata," she said, "Usually not too aggressive unless you try to take its food or you surprise it. Even then it would only attack if it thinks you're weak. But let's not risk it."

The rattata moved around for a while and then disappeared into the foliage.

"It knew we were here." The girl said, "But it didn't want to fight. Usually they stay away because of the repel I'm wearing. Pokemon don't like the smell so they stay away if they can."

"No kidding." I said once she removed her hand.

She seemed to realize that 'pokemon' would include me because she said, "Oh! Sorry! I forgot! I was going to remove it but… I'll get ride of it as soon as possible, I promise."

Once again she started down the path to this Viridian city. "You know, maybe we got off to a bad start but so what. I'm sure we'll be great! We should just slow down and deal with the basics first."

She looked down at me and gave me that smile again. "Come to think of it, I don't even think we've been introduced. I may not know your name or maybe you don't have one but my name is Lin Ka Ota. I guess we'll figure out yours latter."

My name. I had a name. It was given to me a long time ago by a person I loved in a place that seemed to far to be true.

* * *

It had worked! I could hardly believe it. The plan was flawless. It was genus. It had worked! Every little piece of it.

I walked back to my new best friend with the food. It would have been tempting to just take the double portion for myself but I was so happy I couldn't even think sneaky thoughts. I had never ever been first before. It was everything the other eevees had ever said it was and more. The smells, the pride, the glory! All of it was mine now.

I reached the eevee that had helped me. She laughed; "It worked!" Obviously she was in the same state as I was. "I thought it would but I just… wow! It really worked!"

"Quick!" I said, "It's not over quite yet. We have to eat now or we can't get seconds." We started to eat as fast as we could. If we could finish in time we might be able to get back in line before the kitchen ran out of food.

We were in the middle of the feast when we heard laughter coming in our direction. Looking up I saw Arazul walking towards me. At this time I knew that he was special, different from all the other humans even though his standard white coat made him fit in with the rest.

"That was quite the performance." He said, "I've seen the race go to the fastest, the strongest, the most patient, the meanest, the nicest and the toughest but I'm sure that this is the first time I've seen the race go to the two sneakiest eevees ever."

Maybe that would have been an insult in the ears of others but it sounded like the highest praise in mine.

He looked at a clip board in his hand. "Eevees 17-7 and 10-12." He studied the board a little more. "Well, no wonder you two working together would be first. You are both very special eevees. I think that we have champions of the lunch race for quite sometime." Then he smiled that smile for the first time. "But I don't think that you should eat so fast. You both have plenty of time to get back in line." He motioned to a few eevees that were getting in line. "You need to look at the big picture. These are just the first of the stranglers that have given up hope of being first. There are many others that come when the line has died down. It may appear that they are eevees going in for seconds but they aren't. You two can eat at a healthy pace and be done by the time the last eevees get in line. That way you may get the very last parts of the food."

Is there any doubt as to why this guy was everyone's favorite human? I had known of him before but now he was my personal hero. I would have killed for Arazul. You know, if I could have killed or had the slightest ability to be deadly.

"Now, I can't just call you two numbers can I?" Arazul looked at our charts again. "Two special eevees like you need matching names too. Let's see… ah!" He pointed at my friend. "Not eevee 10-12, Bullet." He wrote something in his clop board, "Not eevee 17-7 either." He turned to me and gave me my name. "You are Ricochet."

* * *

Viridian city flooded my vision. I couldn't even begin to describe it. So I won't.

"Viridian city!" Lin said, "It's the biggest city this side of Kanto. It's also the home of the top gym in the whole land." She looked at me. "But first we've got to get you some rest."

The next few minutes found me in the most peculiar place ever. It was in a large, red building of some sort. It had more smells then the kitchen at the farm although not all were that good. Lin took me up to a computer with a woman in a white uniform behind it.

"Excuse me?" Lin said, "but my eevee here…"

"Yes, yes, oh dear you have done a number on it. Another one from the gym? No, not with a pokemon this weak, they'd never let you get near."

And before I could even protest the word weak, the woman picked me up in her arms and rushed me through the door to an endless series of corridors.

"They just keep getting younger and younger don't they? At least you haven't fainted poor thing. Why they would let a little, cute, weak guy like you fight is beyond me."

She was talking so fast and turning random corners at such a high speed I almost didn't catch the little, cute, weak part. Almost. But just as I thought of an insult for her we burst into another room full with almost identical women and more monsters then I'd ever seen before in one place.

She set me on a table next to what looked like a very mad pidgey with a bad feather day. Then she said, "Now wait here one second." And with that she disappeared into a mess of noise.

I turned to the messed up flying type besides me. "So, uh… what are you in for, pidgey."

"Spearow!" The angry bird corrected, "and I don't want to talk about it."

"Alright now," a woman in white appeared at the side of the spearow's bed. "They are ready for you down the hall! Let's go get those poison spikes out of your tush!"

She rushed the spearow away fast but not fast enough to escape the laughs of the others in the room.

I took a wider look around. There were many different monsters but I was too much in pain to care or be afraid. "At least I don't have something shoved up my-"

"Alright now!" one of the many women showed up at my table. "Well, this isn't too bad! You're just a little weak, that's all."

I opened my mouth to answer that challenge but she quickly reached into her front pouch and shoved a white spongy thing in. "Haw! Woo wal wiwil wi… hum, haway! Noowt woo wad!" It wasn't just "not too bad" it was excellent! _This out does anything at the eevee farm! What was the source of such an awesome delicacy? I don't know but I fill like giving this woman the biggest lick ever._

"You like that don't you?" The nurse grabbed my table and pushed me to the exit. "That's a chansey egg for you! Fixes up all your minor injuries in a jiffy!"

_Chansey huh? I've got to remember to recommend this back at the farm. This could be the biggest craze since tag. I could be a hero! A legend! Everyone for generation of eevees could look back and remember 'Ricochet' the eevee that changed the farm for eternity!_

Before I knew it, I was back in the entrance of this place of miracles, seeing Lin waiting for me. I jumped into her arms. I didn't even care that she must be the worst master ever. I was just too happy to care about anything.

"Looks like this is his first chansy egg!" the woman in white said, "They always look their happiest after their first. Do try to be more careful next time boy!"

"Yes nurse." Lin took me though another door. "She's right, you do look a lot happier then you've ever been."

We entered into a large room full of chairs, sofas, and large beds. It had a few humans and monsters in it, most gathered around a fire. Lin, however, took me to a chair far away from the others. She set me on the floor to the side of it and slouched down into the chair.

"What a first day." She said, "I think we'll call it a break for the day. Its evening anyways and I got a lot of catching up to do." She reached into her jacket and pulled out a book and a pencil.

"Boring." I said. I looked around for something to do. I could go talk to the monsters by the fire but they all were pidgeys, spearows and rattatas. Not good company. But what was that by the back? I walked over to the back of the room leaving my master to her scriblings. There were large clear boxes that needed to be inspected. Reaching them I realized that they were full of food. I wasn't exactly hungry at the moment but it was nice to know that there was food close at hand. I had been worried that my master would forget about something like that but she couldn't with these big glowing boxes back here.

I returned to her. She finished writing and put the book back into her jacket. Then she pulled out a completely different book. "Jezz, just how many of those things do you have in there?" I realize that I had been wrong in my first call. Her jacket wasn't full of air, she was full of books. No wonder the stain on life was so uncomfortable. "One word Lin, backpack. Or fanny pack. But seriously, in your jacket?" I took a sniff of the air. No more repel. She must have gotten rid of it while I was in the back rooms. _It's about time._ I leaped up to the arm rest of the chair and looked at the new book. Too my surprise, I saw a drawing of an eevee looking back. "Hey, not too bad. You should stick to drawing instead of doing something you can't do."

"That better have been a cry of amazement." Lin said. She finished the drawing and started to draw a mess of lines underneath. "This is your book." She explained. "This is where we'll put all the moves you can learn, your sat's, and battle strategies. And even more!"

"Gee. Looking forward to it." _This girl was making charts of me? She will be disappointed to learn that I already have one._ It did look like she was taking this whole thing seriously. _It's really too bad that you suck as a master. Now no one will see your little cartoons._

"Is that really true?" I turned to the sound of a loud human. The humans by the fire seemed to be excited about something.

"Just look at the bulletin board if you don't believe me." The first human got up and took off. The second continued, "Can you believe it? The best gym in Kanto is offering apprenticeships to beginning trainers!"

"There's got to be some catch," Another human joined in, "Why would Giovanni want a bunch of newbies in his gym? How much do we have to pay?"

"Nothing! There are just a few tests to see if you're worthy or something."

"He's got to be looking for young talent. I'll bet he is trying to grab them before they join another gym. That way he'll stay on top!"

"It's true!" The first human came back. "It's true! But why would he want newbies now if he already had experienced people."

"The flyer said that if we pass the test we would train under those who already have experience. Those that have experience will be responsible for us until we are ready to train under Giovanni himself."

"Wow, imagine that. Training under a gym leader already. What would my parents think?"

I heard Lin snort behind me. "Look at them, giving up that easily to be someone else's pawn. They should know that they are selling off their entire career and loyalty for all eternity. You just can't leave a gym once you're in it. You belong to them for the rest of time. Interesting though. I wonder what kind of tests Giovanni has in mind." She turned back to her scribbling.

I knew she would be at this for a while so I hopped down and looked for a place to sleep. I found a near bed and jumped up to the top. It was far larger then the ones back at the farm, more comfy too. The only problem was that they were so far off the ground. I had to jump pretty far to get up. I sprawled myself in the middle of the sea of fluffiness and lost myself to memories of the past.

* * *

I turned back with food in mouth to the field. I had lost the race again. _Why don't ever win! I can't be like one of the eevees that doesn't play, that just wait all day near the door to the cafeteria. I need to play. _You couldn't get respect in the farm without playing and I wanted respect.

I glanced over at Zip, the winner this time. She looked back at me smirking, extra food in mouth. _It's not fair, why can't I be as fast as her?_ As her name suggested, Zip took special care to make mention of it every time she used her speed to beat me at something or other. At lest this time she had left it to just a smirk.

I went to my usual spot. My friends were still in line, far back in line. This was going to be a lonely lunch. But at least I could finish off my food quick and get back in line for seconds.

I don't know how long I was eating before I felt someone close by. Looking up I saw another eevee in front of me. She put down her food and said, "Looks like you lost."

"Thanks." I said. "Do you have any other dumb comment to make or are you done."

"Uh…well…" She looked like she was about to pick up her food and leave. "You see, I …" she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, "…"

"Stop! Holy smokes! That's just painful to my ears! Just who do you think you are, coming up to… food… first…?" I studied this eevee more carefully. I didn't remember seeing her before. "What do you mean by first and food? And who are you?"

The eevee fidgeted around for a while then said, "Um, eevee 10-12, on well, I don't really have a name yet, but…"

It was just irritating. For starters I had asked for the info on food first then names. Second, this eevee was so nervous it was disgusting. _Why doesn't she just come out and say what she wants to say?_ "Yeah, yeah, I get it, neither do I. But first, what about food?"

She looked like she froze. Her eyes widened and she seemed to deflate before my eyes. Then her mouth melted a little and quiet, squeaky sounds came out, "I have a plan that can make us first for food. Always."

I thought about her words vary carefully. Always, she had said. Not even Zip was first always. "What do you mean by we? Only one can be first. Just what are you playing at?"

If it were possible she shrank even more. "I think or I know that you could be first if the plan works but I wont be but. Well, we could share."

"Just what are you talking about? Some sort of deal?"

She nodded, "I can make you first for every meal and I just to have half of the helpings. Then I could get back in line in time for seconds. You too."

Was this a trick? It seemed too good to be true. _A trap from some of the rival eevees? I could see something like this coming from Zip and the others. But still, could I resist the possibility of it being true._ "First, tell me your plan. Then we'll talk."

She hesitated for a while, and then started to tell me her plan. What can I say? I laughed like a mad man.

* * *

"Why does it have to be me?" I tried hiding under the covers but I knew they wouldn't protect me forever. "Why are we up so early?"

Lin tore away my protection. "Hey! The others have left already! I'm sorry I over slept but we need to get a move on!" She grabbed me and tried to pull me off the bed but I had bitten the mattress. She growled in frustration or maybe it was pure anger, hard to tell with a voice like hers. Finally she let go and I thought I had won but I saw her grab something from her jacket. I checked it out of the corner of my eye. To my terror it was a pokeball.

I definitely didn't scream like a wus, dive off the bed, or hide on the opposite side. No, what I did was make a ferocious sound to startle my opponent, take a daring leap from an extremely tall bed and use the bed as a bunker in which I could fire my attacks from. Like any strong and smart pokemon would do, of course.

"Hey, that's more like it!" Lin said, "Lets go!" I heard her rustle with her jacket and knew that the ball was gone, for now.

_Now's my chance. _I jumped back up to the bed, now on the offensive. "You complete loser of a human! Why in the world would I want to get up this early! The sun isn't even up all the way for heavens sake! Next ti-" it was about there when I realized she still had the pokeball in her hand. Even though she couldn't understand my words, she seemed to get the drift of what I was saying because she lifted the accursed thing in the air once more.

I figured I had done enough damage for the time being and reverted back to my earlier strategy, this time with manly whimpering to trick my opponent into thinking I was afraid to face them on the field of battle. Yes, for I knew that an overconfident opponent was an easily defeated opponent. And the shaking was just so I could feel afraid, get into the mind of a scared eevee if you will, as to make my act more realistic. Difficult for me at that time since I knew no fear.

I stayed there for quite sometime before I decided to quickly scout out the field. I moved to the right, jerked my head out into plain view, took a quick sweep of the area, and jerked it back. _Dang it! Too quick!_ I only saw a blurry image of Lin standing there. I decided to try again, more slowly this time. I cleverly peeked from the left side of the bed, she'd never expect it. This time I got the whole picture. Lin was just standing there, nonchalant, hands behind back, and slowly rocking back and forth. If I was going to insult, it was now or never.

I jumped up to the bed. "And another thing, where… AAHHH!" _The ball!_ The ball was right there in my face! It was a trap! I froze; knowing at any moment of her choosing my master would imprison me.

From behind the ball and her outstretched hand Lin said, "You don't like this, do you?" She paused for a while then took the ball away and put it in her jacket. "Well then, I'll make you a deal. You aren't too much of an inconvenience to keep outside the pokeball. I don't think anyone would have a problem if you just stayed close to me. So, is it fair? I don't use this on you and in return you have to follow me. Deal?"

I thought it over for awhile and decided that I really had no choice but to choose the lesser of two evils. I sighed and gave up the bed. A few minutes latter found me at the edge of town.

"This will be great!" _Was she trying to get me to look forward to a butt kicking?_ "I know a place just outside of here that will be perfect. We'll be the only ones too. All the others have either gone to route or up to the forest to fight each other so we will have the place all to ourselves to figure out what you can do." _No other humans to attack me? Maybe she did know what she's doing._

We reached the top of a hill and looked to see a neatly paved path was with a large building end. Lin pointed to a small grassy area to the side of the path. "That's it. The others don't come how because of all the tough pokemon that this area has." _Crap!_ Just when I thought it might be a nice day, Lin-Ka-Ota steps in to screw with it.

We reached the area that Lin pointed out. I didn't see any pokemon but you can never know where a rattata can hide. Lin knelled down and grated the long grass. She gave it a yank and commenced to create something. A little while latter she stepped back and revealed some kind of toy made out of grass and string. It vaguely resembled an eevee, an incredibly fat and ugly eevee.

"I hope that you're not expecting me to play with that."

"All right eevee! Now, I want you to show me your tackle attack."

_This is a joke right. No, she's serious._

"No."

"Uhmmm… tackle?"

"No!"

"…Please?"

"No."

"Err, well, lets try something else huh! An eevee at your level should know tail whip. It's performed the same why that the squirtle's was. Just run up and turn at the last moment to strike your opponent with your tail. Ready? Tail whip!"

"No."

"Oh come on! It's not too difficult. You should be able to handle it. Ahh! What's your problem?"

"It's not the pokemon's problem. The problem is in the human." _A human voice!_ I turned around to see a boy, all dressed in blue, coming up the path to us. "Its kind of sad to see a pokemon stuck with such a loser." He said. I was glad someone understood my situation. "But then again, eevee must have done something awful to grandpa to deserve you. Or maybe it's just weak." _Now it's gone to far! Wait, grandpa? This is the professor's grandson?_

I bristled my fur and gave the human my famous look of death. With a voice that matched my indignation and a tone that equaled my furry, Lin said, "Blue, you grandson of a manky's rear end, what are you doing here? You followed me here, didn't you?"

_Blue? Evidently his mother hated this jerk as much as we did_. I found if a comfort that Lin seemed to despise this guy already. That will make it easier to kick his behind. "All right human!" I said, "Just you wait, I'm going to give you a matching slight bruise!"

"I was just coming here to head off Green," _Another mother hated child no doubt._ "But I think I have enough time to take out the trash." He grabbed a pokeball from his waist. "After all, I don't want another person interfering between me and Green." He through the pokeball in our direction. "Go pidgey."

"What! You already have two pokemon!" Lin said, "Quick eevee, tackle."

"I was going to do that anyway!" I ran towards the forming pidgey.

"Sand attack!" the pidgey moved its wings and I mentally braced for the invisible pain. To my surprise this pain was quite visible. Sand consumed me and I lost the sight of the pidgey.

"Sand attack," Lin said. "It will lower your accuracy. Tackle it before it gets too low!"

"Solid advice Lin." I ran toward the pidgey once the dust settled. It was to my right, just out of reach.

"Too slow! Pidgey, sand attack and dodge right!"

Sand hit my face and I lost sight of my opponent. I remembered the command of the human and tackled to my right. To my dismay I saw the pidgey to my left instead.

"That's good eevee! Just remember that he'll go to his right, not yours!" Lin said.

Blue laughed, "You're congratulating it for a failure? No wonder you only have one pokemon. You could never get even one to respect you like that! Face it Lin, a little girl like you should have stayed back at the orphanage. Sand attack!"

_Orphanage?_ I didn't have time to think about that. I tried to tackle again but once again sand stopped me from touching him. What's worse is that some of it stayed in my eyes every time. It was getting harder to see.

"And a little boy like you should have stayed under your daddy's wings. Although you may not be a boy come to think of it. Are they still far up there?"

"You witch! Do you have any idea how bad that hurt?"

"Yep, that would be the reason I did it. That way I got to hurt all future generations of Oaks as well. All right eevee, one last time!"

"I don't need that order! I know what I'm doing!" I ran towards the pidgey again, this time changing my strategy. When I got to the area where I knew the pidgey was, I jerked my butt around to perform tail whip. Nothing, but that was what I was expecting. _Now's my chance!_ The abrupt turn must have throughn off the pidgey. I'll just use that confusion too.

Sand slammed into my side. Covering me again.

"Good try eevee! Don't panic, just keep trying to use tackle." Lin again.

"That's not working!" I said. I tried to blink the sand out of my eyes but it was useless. "I was already trying if you weren't paying attention. It doesn't seem to be getting me anywhere!" I tackled and missed again, more sand followed. I was getting desperate. I couldn't see anything now. I had no idea where the pidgey was. _Why wasn't the human helping me? She should be spending less time insulting and more time telling me what I should do!_ "You little… you won't get away with that. Pidgey return! Go charmander!"

_Charmander! Oh shoot!_ Even though I couldn't see him, I could still hear his self assured voice coming from my right.

"Ha! Not-so-bright, I was hoping I would meet back up with you. Now that we're alone you're all mine?"

"It's alright eevee." Lin's voice from the left. "Make your way over to my voice and we'll fix this punk." The fact that she was on the opposite side of the monster made this order the easiest to fallow yet. I got over as quickly as I could. "Here," I felt her mitted hand on me and another was close to my face. "Eat this." I did not know what 'this' was but it smelled awful.

"No way am I eating that!"

"Come on, this is how we'll win!"

"I don't care, I'm not eating it!" I jerked away and ran into the battle field again. _The nerve of that human! What was she trying to give me? That totally wouldn't have sat well!_

"Eevee!" Lin shouted. "No! Come back! You'll never beat him like that!"

"So your loser pokemon won't even take orders from you? And you think that you could ever be a master. Charmander, you know what to do."

"Oh no, eevee behind you!"

Way too late. I felt a claw touched my side and a few seconds latter a strip of pain.

"Ouch! It hurts! It hurts!" _What was that?_

"You like that?" the charmander said, "That's my scratch attack. Now do you see why you never stood a chance?"

I tried to defend myself but it was useless. I couldn't see where the attacks were coming from.

"Just start using tackle!" Lin's advice.

I jumped in random directions. Miss, Miss, Miss, scratch, scratch, scratch. I was in a panic. I could feel my world getting darker as the assault continued. Over and over I felt the claws of the monster and were ever they were they left pain. I was going to die. I knew it. This was it.

"It's over." Whither that voice came from Lin, Blue or charmander, I know not. But it was charmander that said to me, "Weak, and stupid. So much you can't even take an order from your master."

In that moment I lost consciousness.

* * *

I was ready for it when it happened. The signal this time was three sharp barks to grab my attention then she would just sit there and wag her tail.

The rules of the lunch game had changed. It started off simple enough. At first we had found out that our perfect plan had to be changed a bit every once in a while. The other eevees, or the ones that were important, had gotten tired of never winning the race and started to adapt to our game plan. Bullet and I had had some pretty close calls but we have managed to stay on top. Too slow to realize, our simple plan had evolved into a game on which all our reputations and all our cunning went into. It was way more fun too.

I winked at Bullet, and then looked back at Feral. Even though Feral appeared to be my opponent at the moment, I knew that my biggest worry was Zip. _Has she taken the bait?_ I couldn't see her and I didn't dare look for her. Zip was too smart for that. She would immediately spot that as a signal and the trap.

"Looks like your girlfriends a little worried for you Ricochet." Feral said. "Why don't you just save yourself the pain today and just take your place at the end of the line."

I ignored him. Feral was never a true threat by himself. The only times were when he was backed by someone else, usually Zip but this time it was just one on one. Feral failed to understand how the game had changed. It was no longer the single best pokemon with the special stat of the day. It was now a team effort. Now charisma and cunning decided the victor. At least it would while I was still making the rules.

I started to circle around the object in the middle of the circle made up of other eevees. Predictably, Feral started circling in the opposite direction. I used this opportunity to scan the crowed. My allies started their work, forming a circle or their own. I didn't have too many on my side, really I would have avoided involving others if I could. The less, the faster we were.

I decided it was time for the final stages. I took a few steps to the prize this time. It was a stick. But not just some stick. Feral flinched. He wasn't expecting such a small movement to the stick. He seemed uncertain of what to do although he knew what was at stake. The stick was big enough for only two eevees to grab and the first one to do it would be first in line for food along with one other eevee of his choice.

I continued walking towards the stick. I tried to keep a posture of indifference but it was difficult with the knowledge of what I had to accomplish. It had to be just right or nothing.

"What are you doing?" Feral said.

_Perfect._ "You know the rules." I said. "The first to grab the stick gets a free pass to the door along with another eevee to whom he gives the other end of the stick. The first enters in and then it's every eevee for himself." I immediately crouched, "and the first is me!"

I sprang for the stick as well as him. He may have been faster then me but my unexpected behavior had given me the advantage I had needed. I reached the stick and clamped my jaw around it. I felt a greater force on the other end and knew Feral had a hold as well. _Had I done it?_

"A tie! A tie!" The shouts of eevees responded.

"Well, this is interesting." An eevee said. The eevee was the neutral part of this game, the judge if you will. "What happens in the case of a tie?"

Feral didn't answer his mouth to respond, fearing that if he let go of the stick for a second, he would lose. Instead he just looked into my eyes and I just looked right back, following his lead.

"Uhm, may I suggest a solution?" _Thank goodness._ I had been afraid that Bullets shyness would have gotten would have gotten the better of her. Everything relied on her now. She jerked out of the crowed, freeing herself to take the attention. "As part of Ricochet's team, I have an idea." The boos from Feral's massive team almost droned her out. "Uhm… why don't they go together?"

"What do you mean?" said the judge. "Two can't be first."

"Well, the rules of the game were that the stick would give two eevees a free pass to the door, not to be first." She of course was referring to the small door in front of the cafeteria. When the humans sounded the alarm for lunch, the panel doors were unlocked and eevees could come through and get in line. After they received their food they would leave through another door on the opposite side.

"They go to the door together and then race to see who is really first." The plan made since. The door was big enough for two eevees to fit in at the same time. There shouldn't be any reason to say no. Especially since I was known for being one of the slowest eevees.

"Is this plan acceptable?" The judge said. Feral and I nodded our heads and started to the doors. It seemed like the longest walk ever. As we started to reach the doors the tension grew. The other eevees crowded in and I felt the 'all's good' tag on my tail.

We had just about reached the doors when I heard Zip scream in frustration. _No! It's too soon!_ I didn't dare look at Feral in fear that I might give myself away. _Has Zip figured it out already?_ I had just a few more seconds. I hoped my team would keep Zip surrounded just long enough to-

"Feral you idiot!" Zip said. "It's a trick!"

Too late. We arrived at the door. I immediately dropped my stick and ran through. Stunned by my move, the other eevees started to shout. My allies behind me started to move to the door. Feral, snapping out of confusion, ran to the door. I didn't see it but the dull thud told me my plan had worked. While the door was big enough to fit in two eevees at one, the stick was too long to fit through. Plus, Feral was too stupid to let go of it.

I was first again and the next few eevees were all my allies. _There, that should keep them on my team for a while._ The other eevees filled the line behind us. All of which, I was pleased to see, were very unhappy with me. When I exited the cafeteria I found a reception waiting for me.

"You cheated!" Feral said. "That food belongs to me!"

I put down **my** food. "You're even stupider then I realized Feral. You had a good chance of being one of the first in line but you gave it up to come here."

The judge took his role. "Ricochet, explain."

"It's quite simple really. I played be the rules. I know I did because I made them."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. The person who wins last makes the game for the next day. We know that, but you broke your rules!"

"No I didn't. You just missed the trick. The rules state that the one who grabs the stick first goes to the door with another eevee of his choice. We were both able to grab the stick at the exact same time. Then we choose to fallow Bullets advice."

"Yeah, to go through the door at the same time!"

"No, to the door," the judges eyes lit up. "Really Feral, we just decided to be each others other eevee."

"You jerk!" I looked to see Zip emerging behind me. "Then you said after the first eevee goes though it was everyone for themselves giving your friends a chance to sneak in during the confusion." She definitely wasn't happy. "You knew that as you approached the door I would see that the stick was too big so you had your friends surround me so I couldn't interfere."

"That's really good Zip! They should change your name to Miss obvious."

"Don't pretend like this is your victory Ricochet." Zip said. "You're just the face of another! And next time I won't fall for her tricks!"

It really didn't matter what Zip thought at the moment because I had proven my case. "Tonight we'll be ready with the next game Judge." I picked up my food and headed to Bullet.

"You can't stay on top forever!" Feral said. "Eventually you'll fall and no one will be there to pick you up!"

I reached bullet. She was happy and so was I. We started eating and planning the next game. _Fall? Me? Never. And if I ever did why would I need someone to lift me? Not so long as I had my own four feet!_

* * *

I felt warm and comfortable. _What a nightmare! It was terrible! Is that really how the outside world was like? I hoped not. To be beat around like a toy would not be a bright future. But now I was back at the farm. Now I was with my friends. Maybe I would tell Bullet about the dream. I'm sure she would be interested. She is always talking about going outside the farm one day. But for now I think I'll just curl up here and…_

"Hey little guy, you're finally awake! Well, well, well! Lets get you back now!" that was not the voice of one of the farmers. I opened my eyes to find myself in a pokemon center. One of the nurses looked down at me. "You poor little weak thing! I'll give that boy a piece of my mind, don't worry fluffy!"

I was still screaming when I reached the main room of the pokemon center. I saw Lin there. I sat on the counter, not moving an inch while the nurse started her lecture.

"Here is your pokemon Lin-Ka-Ota. And let me say that this poor guy was in bad shape, yes I'd say he wasn't a happy camper no he wasn't! What do you have to say for yourself! What did you do? Take the poor weak guy to that gym? Shame on you! You should know he's too weak to try to compete in those ridiculous tests!"

My disgust at the well meaning nurse overwhelmed my anger at my master. I leaped into Lin's arms and turned back to the nurse to give her a talking to but she had already escaped.

Lin set me down. "Lets take a quick break ok?" she walked over to a chair and set down. She sat there with one had supporting her head and the other playing with what little hair was sticking out of her beanie. Like that was going to help. The PC was empty so even if I wanted to I couldn't talk to anyone. I sat there for a moment then headed over to her.

Suddenly I remembered something. _Breakfast! I didn't have breakfast. Well, jeez, that's the reason I lost! I missed the most important meal of the day! _I ran to the nearest window. _Wow, I'm way late. I don't have anything since that chancy egg._ Then I remembered the glowing boxes in the back of the room. I jogged over turned back and shouted to get Lin's attention. You have to be blunt like that; humans don't get any other way.

Lin looked over at me. She grimaced and walked over. "Uhm… here!" She reached inside of her jacket and pulled out berries. "These taste super good!" I had learned to never trust food that's 'supper good' a long time ago. I looked at the few berries in her hand and back at the neatly packaged complete meals in the box, then at Lin.

"They really are good. And, um, I don't have any money anymo… uh, way."

"So you're telling me you're not even loved enough to be fed?" I grabbed all the berries he had in my mouth and marched off. "I've never gone without food at the farm." I tried the berries. "And the food was a lot better then this!"

Lin looked at me from the opposite side of the room then made her way back to the chair. She didn't sit down; instead she pulled it up to me. "Sorry," she said "I got too caught up in what Blue was saying. I wasn't focusing on what you were doing. I won't make that mistake again."

"You better not! And do something to fix this food thing! I don't know if I can go a whole day without food!"

"You know, I was thinking," she said, "There is still time left in the day, we could go up to Viridian forest for a bit. Bug pokemon aren't that hard to defeat. And all the others should be tired of fighting each other now, so we don't have to worry about them."

I finished off the berries. I always had a knack for knowing a bad plan from a good one. This was a bad plan.

* * *

"We're almost there!" My master said, "Don't worry; this is going to be great!" Something in that gravely voice told me that I wasn't the one she was trying to reassure.

We went over another hill and I saw trees for the first time. I wasn't too impressed. They were just very tall bushes to me. We walked past a few grassy areas until we reached a large building.

"Here is the entrance to the viridian forest."

"I don't get it." I said, "I thought you said a forest was big. How did they get it to fit inside this building?"

"Alright," Lin took a deep breath. "Here we go!" she took a big step towards the door of the forest but a voice stopped her in the middle of it.

"Don't bother Lin." A boy dressed in green walked up to us. "I know you aren't ready."

"Gre-"

"GREEN!" I said. "Green! I get it already!" _Not again! Not another one! I'm going to get pummeled again! I just know it. Why couldn't I have just stayed in that cage at the lab? Why did I have to bite the professor? Why did she have to be my master?_

"What's that suppose to mean?" Lin said. She seemed to be missing her usual spunk. "You've been talking to Blue haven't you?"

"I defeated him a while ago. He gave a very descriptive tale about you. Says you didn't even lay one hit, that you ignored your pokemon when it was in battle, that you haven't even caught one pokemon." The truth of every accusation could be seen, for when they were stated my master winced and seemed to slink back. "And now you're out on the same day, going to where there are bound to be trainers. You haven't beaten so much as a pidgey. What makes you think you can handle the forest?"

I wanted to correct the whole pigey thing but the fact that this guy beat Blue, the one who defeated me so easily, weighed heavily in my mind. This one was different form the others. I have known many humans before but pokemon masters seemed to be different breed. Derf was calm, sensible, and effective. Blue: a complete jerk. Lin was Lin but this one had something more. He was warning us, he didn't seem to take any personal pride that he had defeated Blue and he gave off an aura of confidence that unsettled me. It looked like it had the same effect on Lin.

"I was thinking that the others must be tired by now so-"

"Lin! Think about it! The people in the forest practically live there. They are bug catchers, meaning that their pokemon grow faster then other pokemon. The bug catchers have been fighting there for years. The children here grow up watching these fights so when they start their journey they already have more experience then us. You can't just walk in there and expect to come out in one piece unless you make the necessary preparations. You haven't."

Lin just stared at him. Obviously she hadn't thought of any of those things.

"Well thank goodness he's here." I said. "We would have been totally creamed."

"We're going anyways!"

"Crap!"

Green looked at Lin, judging her determination, and then pulled out a pokeball from his belt. "You should have stayed at the lab. If you wont listen to good advice then the consequences is on you head but I can't have you dragging that eevee into a place where it will be torn to shreds. I'll just knock it unconscious right now!" He threw out the pokeball. "Go bulbasaur!"

"Thanks for your help butt wipe!" I said.

"Eevee, tail whip!"

"No! Not this time!" I ran to the same plant monster from a few days before. "I'm doing this on my own." I expected something to happen. The boy shouted something before I reached the monster and I would be destroyed. It was only natural at this point. But nothing happened. I performed my tackle attack perfectly, pushing the green monstrosity with all my might. Once again nothing happened.

The green monster looked at me. "Was that supposed to hurt fluffy?"

"You're pokemon wont even listen to you." Green said. "Tail whip was a good choice. My bulbasaur's defense is too high and your eevee's attack is too low to do much damage. Good strategy but it's pointless if your pokemon won't listen."

"Don't be smug Green! Every attack doses something. Don't pretend that bulbasaur didn't take damage."

"It will be like he hasn't in a bit. Leech seed!"

The back of the monster pulsed and a small round object emerged form the top of the plant. "I have a little surprise for you, weakling." Lin's late warnings didn't even come. The leech seed leaped to me, little routs coming out as it did. I found myself covered in little vines. I ran as fast as I could to test my mobility. After thoughtful consideration, I found that the vines did not limit my ability to use my techniques.

"What was that?" Bulbasaur said over the long distance between us. "Are you trying to run away?"

"No! I'm just testing my mobility."

"Right."

"Eevee! You can't afford to lose ground like that." My master said. "Especially with leech seed! You need to use tail whip!"

_Especially with leech seed?_ "Oh no. This is one of those weird attacks again isn't it? What does this one do?"

"You'll figure out soon enough." Said bulbasaur.

"Bulbasaur let him come to you. When he gets close enough use tail whip. Let's just let leech seed do the work for now." Green said.

"Crap. Eevee! You need to use tail whip!"

"No!" My only chance was to knock this guy out before he decided to tackle me. I needed to pound the monster hard and fast.

I ran to him. He didn't even move, he just stood there grinning at me. _Oh man, this is not a good sign._ I leapt up into the air to perform my tackle attack. Then a strange sensation waved through my body. I lost concentration and landed to the right of the monster. _What was that? I could have sworn that I felt something leave me._

"Like that?" My thoughts snapped back to the battle just in time to see bulbasaur's butt in m face. After a light slap on my cheek he gave me one on my ego. "You loss focus pretty easily don't you. That was leech seeds effect. It's an attack that-"

"Eevee! Leech seed is an attack that will slowly drain your energy and give it to your opponent!" Lin said.

The bulbasaur glanced up at her. "You know, I don't think I like her."

"You wouldn't be the first."

"Use tail whip."

I ignored the command. Instead I leaped into the air at my opponent. Direct hit! I did pay for it in a little slap though. "Bulbasaur," I said. "I would do something more than tail whip. At this rate I'll keep tackling you until uhew uh!" The draining sensation again. _This one's taking the place of tail whip on my list of most annoying moves._

"No, I trust in Green." Said the monster.

I lined myself up and used tackle again despite the growl from Lin. After the tackle I checked on the status of Green. It cost me a tail whip and a draining but I did see what he was doing. He was just standing there, arms crossed, quietly observing me and bulbasaur. "You're going to trust a guy that just tossed you out here to take hits with out giving them back? At least my master's yelling out dumb advice."

"Master? You seem to mistake our relationship."

I tackled again. _Why was he just standing there? Tail whip just isn't enough at this point. I'll knock him out for sure if he doesn't do something else._ "What do you even mean by that? You were that one that told me that you wanted a master."

As we continued our trade of attacks, bulbasaur said, "And I had to learn. Now I know what pokemon battling is really like."

I shrugged off his words. _What does he know anyway?_ I tackled again and was whipped and leeched again. To add to the annoyance factor, the grass monster kept talking.

"Now I know where I really fit in. I trust Green. I may not know what he is thinking or planning but I know it's for our benefit. And that's why I'll listen to him no matter what. That's why I know we'll win!"

At the same time I heard what I can only describe as a death sentence. "Now bulbasaur, tackle."

The world went dark very suddenly. Before I left conciseness I heard bulbasaure whisper to me. "You should have trusted her."

* * *

The sensation started to be familiar to me. Nice and warm, comfortable blanket, nice smells, I wasn't home. I was back in the hospital.

"Awake little guy?" the nurse said. "Oh, poor little baby. You got you cute little tush kicked again didn't you? Don't worry. I'll make sure it never happens again. I'll give him a talking to I will."

I went through the routine. Hallway, doors and to the counter. I saw Lin waiting for me like always. Then came the insults.

"Young man this is the second time today we've treated this eevee! What's your excuse for dragging a week little pokemon like this into dangerous battles? Don't you know enough to see that this eevee is too pathetic to compete in anything but the smallest of battles? What do you have to say for yourself?"

I didn't bother to fight back. _Pathetic, weak, small, little, cute… why bother?_ Lin didn't open her arms for me and I wouldn't have used them if they were there. Instead I dropped to the floor.

"I'm sorry miss." Lin's voice was barley audible.

"It's not me you should be worried about child. I've never seen such an unhappy pokemon. What kind of pokemon master do you think you are? I've never met such a bad egg as you!"

Lin just kind of bowed her head and walked off. I followed her towards the place of chairs and beds. She slumped into a chair and started massaging her neck though the scarf. Her face was different then it had been before. Although I would see that face again this was the first time I saw it and the last time that I wanted to see it. At this time I couldn't even imagine what was really going on much less what she was feeling nor did I care. I was far to wrapped up in my own misery to give it more then a little mental note.

It had really gotten to me. _Weak, pathetic, insult after insult, pain, the blackness. I can't do this anymore. Could you really blame me though? I've been beaten, humiliated, insulted and destroyed._ "Nothing," I said as a new feeling of darkness closed around me. "I'm absolutely nothing." I couldn't stand up for myself out here, out of the farm. I was weak, weaker then I had ever realized. Three battles and I didn't harm an inch of my opponents. I had thought what I was the hottest thing in the world but as soon as the world expanded… "I'm not special. Eevee's aren't strong. Why did you lie Arazul?"

I stood staring out the window for my answer. Like most answers however, the ones that I was searching for were not passing by. They were out there, or maybe I've already found them but didn't want to listen. I reviewed my life. The adventures I've had, the friends, rivals and enemies, the lessons I've learned and the challenges I've faced. Nothing was like this. Everything was different now. "When I go back to the farm, what will I say? Can I even go back to the way I was before?"

I felt Lin's presence behind me. Her voice was an emotionless grunt. "Here," she reached in her big brown jacket and pulled out more berries. "These are for you."

I deftly took the berries and made my way to a bed in the corner of the room. My master took the chair a little further away and pulled out one of her books. I ate as she scribbled. Then she stopped and put her hand to her head. Maybe she thought that I was already asleep or just too far to hear but I wasn't and I did. She was crying. I heard her say, "I didn't expect it to be like this. What am I missing?"

I curled up under the covers of the bed. Sleep came easily but I was woken up again when someone shut off the lights in the whole center. In the dim light of the moon through the windows, I was just able to make out Lin's silhouette standing by the bulitonboard. She reached up and took something down. Then I fell asleep again.

* * *

"You're just in time!" Bullet moved to let me in. "He's about to start!" I had worked my way through a crowd of eevees to get to her. We were all gathered to hear Arazul. Tonight was story night. Once a week Arazul would go to the bed room and ell some stories form the outside world. Even though all the eevees were jittering with excitement, I felt cold. This was the last one there'd ever be if Arazul had been telling the truth earlier that day. Now he was getting ready to tell the whole eevee farm that he was leaving for good.

They were crushed just as much as we were when he told them. He really had been everyone's favorite human. Even Zip and Feral were disappointed.

Arazul must have realized the impact this had on up because he said; "Don't worry about the farm. Many more humans will come and this pace will get bigger. You'll have many more friends to play with very soon. And as for me, I'll be with my family on Cinnabar." That didn't really comfort anybody. "I know that you'll miss me but this is how life is. Remember that life is always moving forward and things will be changing very soon in your lives too."

He looked over us all. His voice sounded so different then it ever had been but the smile that was now spreading over his face was the same one form this morning.

"Very soon you will be in a world of pokemon. In this world there are words that you will not be familiar with. Ones like types, stats, ability's, potions, but please don't be afraid. Only change is required. Trust yourselves to make new friends. Remember, friends aren't always who or what you expect them to be. Remember that everyone is special and fits in when you work as a team. Learn who you are and where you fit in on that team. Then help it grow as much as you can. Do not be discouraged at a few failures at first. It's to be expected. Just change."

Then Arazul liked directly at me. "You are nothing alone. Cling to the ones that share your dreams."

* * *

I woke up with a start. _Why had that memory popped out of my mind? Why was I having so many flash backs all the sudden?_

I checked my surroundings. The lounge was empty except for Lin and I. When she saw that I was awake she headed over to me and gave me a few berries. I didn't even bother to complain. It had been so long since I had had a good meal I had become accustomed to it.

"You know, maybe we just took too big of a step, that's all." Lin said. She had a paper in her hand with tons of little scribbling. "This is the form for the tests to enter training at the Gym. It is the best gym in all of Kanto. If we could get in we could have a huge advantage over others. Heck, with time we could even become the gym leader! What do you say?"

Her efforts to sound excited were only more pathetic when one realized that her voice isn't one made to sound excited. I wasn't going to argue though.

We left the pokemon center and quickly found our way over to a large building with a big man in front of it. When Lin tried to approach it the man looked at her and said, "What do you want?"

"I'm here for the trials."

"They're over kid. We already have everyone we need."

I expected Lin to break down crying but instead she apologized and left. Seconds latter found us on the other side of the building. She started to stack boxes to the window of the top floor. "Well. I'm sure that this will impress him even more than the tests." Lin said. "If we can just get in we'll blow his socks off for sure!"

It didn't sound like a smart strategy to me but since only she could do the work of trying to move the conveniently placed boxes it didn't really matter to me. All I had to do was stand and watch until she made a fool out of herself. At least I wouldn't get the stuffing beat out of me this way.

After a little elbow grease, the make shift latter was complete. Lin and I climbed up to the top and pushed our way though the open window and into a small office. Evidently someone was trying to cool down this place. I couldn't blame them; it was pretty stuffy in there. It was dark inside but we could see light coming form beneath the door. Lin and I creped towards it. We heard voices on the other side so we opened the door a little to scout out the situation. We saw a hallway or some kind of open passage. While here was light in the whole room below us, the rafters were obscured with no real light around them.

We moved out of the room at over to the rafters where we saw the source of the voices. The room was filled with humans in black, many with a big red R painted on the front of their front or back and each had a long purple thing or a purple ball at their side. They were all looking forward at a large man in a suite. He continued his talk. "From now on my loyal servants, partners and friends, you shall be known as Team Rocket. For like a rocket shooting up towards the heavens shall we be, cutting through any that get in the way. We shall be a light, the sun of a new epic of history. You have all proven yourselves worthy to be the first members of this empire. Together, our power shall explode and we shall illuminate this land so they shall see he truth of pokemon!"

"Cool," I whispered. "We made it just in time for the pep talk. This guy sounds great!"

"That pokemon are tools to be used for the benefit of mankind!"

"Oh well, maybe not."

"That a master should be free to rise to his highest level, without restrictions or rules! With out coddling the creatures that are ours to be used! With out holding back! And with this oath, we will combine our powers to overcome even the Elite Four! We will establish our world! This is our day!"

The whole room burst into cheering and clapping. At that time I realized the magnitude of the members of Team Rocket and that I might have to visit the pokemon center a lot more then I had previously thought.

I don't remember what I thought Lin was going to do but grabbing me by the fur and yanking me into the dark room again wasn't one of them. I gave out a manly grunt of surprise and found myself in an even more uncomfortable situation. I was pinned between Lin's arms and her jacket which I was distressed to find hadn't lost all of its horrid smell.

Lin kept mumbling "oh crap" over and over again. I couldn't blame her. Had the gagging reflex caused by the jacket permitted me, I might have been saying the same thing. I may not have understood what all that was but something told me that we weren't suppose to see it.

Lin stopped and reached into one of her many pockets. To my horror she took out a berry. She looked carefully at it then said, "Ekans and koffing's huh. Well, this should do the trick." She shoved it into my mouth. "Now don't eat this."

_No problem Lin._

We made our way through the office and back down the latter. My master stopped to disassemble the latter. She shouldn't have.

"If you want to cover your tracks, don't bother." A human, roughly the same age as Lin stepped out of no where. He was dressed all in black with a big red R on his chest and on his hat. He smiled at us and said. "It's already way too late."

Lin turned to face him. I edged my way to a strong defensive position behind her leg. They just stared at each other for a moment. Then the man in black said, "I was listening to the speech when I heard a cowardly yelp of a weak pokemon." _Blast! Someone gave me away!_ "I decide to go investigate and what do I find but a spy. Giovanni will be happy with me. Not one day on the job and I'm already the most valuable servant."

"Shows what you know!" Lin growled. The tone and natural sound of her voice caused the Rocket to take a step back. She was not afraid, and that amazed me. Not that I was afraid mind you. The jump at the unexpected sound of her voice was just to get myself warmed up. "Unfortunately for you I happen to be one of the world's best. You're not even high enough to see my level."

"You're bluffing. A little boy like you could never equal a master." He seemed to have recovered some of his stance. "You're just trying to weasel out of a battle."

"Why would I want that?" I had thought that Lin was bluffing. I have since come to realize that she lacks the ability to be subtle and bluffing is beyond her. "Why should I be afraid of you or anyone else so weak they need others to fight their battles?"

_Gee. Isn't that the whole point of pokemon fights?_

Lin looked down at me. "You ready?"

"What! No! What happed to fighting your own battles? No! Heck no!"

"Alright! That's what I want to hear."

Even though I knew that it wouldn't help my situation, I screamed.

"Well then," the Rocket said. "I guess that a master like you wouldn't have the need of the protection the rules give the weak. I'll just go all out!" he grabbed two balls and tossed them at us. "Go ekans and koffing!"

"Go eevee!" Lind said and nudged me out to the battlefield.

"Oh crap!" I said.

"Ekans!"

"Koffing!"

"Oh double crap!" I said. The new monsters were even scarier than the last ones. One seemed to be a flouting ball with pores spewing out gas and the other was a long scaly living rope with fangs! "I can't even beat one and you want me to fight two?"

"Come on eevee, we can do this." Her voice spoke with confidence. She knew it. Why didn't I?

I ran out into the battle field to the two waiting monsters.

"Koffing, tackle! Ekans, dig!"

The koffing floated towards me. I stopped and looked up at him. _Predictable, I'll just-_

"Eevee," Lin's voice. "Dodge right!"

"Dodge?" I said, "But the Koffing isn't even close to me yet?" Why-" The ground under me exploded. Something rammed me from under my belly. The force picked me up and tossed me into the air. I had just seconds to think about what just happened before the koffing slammed me back to the ground.

"You like that?" the Rocket said, "There are rules against using two pokemon at once but it's so limiting. With two pokemon the whole meaning of the game changes!"

"Eevee, put as much distance between you and that koffing as possible!" said Lin.

"Finally," I said. "Good advice."

I planned to put as much distance as possible all right. I took off towards the forest as fast as I could. I didn't even stop to listen to the words of the humans behind me. I was determined that the ball and rope would never touch me. For a second I thought I heard "keep running" but who knows if it was Lin or my sub consciousness.

I was in the forest now. There were trees all around me, and for a second I was enclosed in silence. I thought that I was completely alone. _I had done it! I had escaped! No more pokeballs, no more masters, no more monsters. I was alone!_

'Do you really think that you can do this on your own?' Came charmander's voice.

"There you are!" _The rocket!_ I turned to see him and Lin. The koffing was no where in sight. I turned to run again but it was too late. The ground exploded underneath me. The strong push into the air was met by the knowledge of where the koffing was, right in my face.

"Uff!" I get the ground again.

"Weak little guy." said the Rocket. 'Weak and stupid' "Again!"

"Right!" Lin commanded.

I got up just in time to through myself to the right and watch as the ekans burst out of the ground past me. The monster collided with the koffing above and both fell down.

"Eevee," Lin said, "Tail whip on ekans." But I had long since gone.

"I like the first strategy better. Your plan sucks!"

'I may not know what he is thinking or planning.'

"Ha!" said the Rocket, "You can't even give an order!"

'Too weak to take an order.'

I must have run as fast as a level 100 rapidash on speed. I narrowly evaded the trees and shrubbery in my way. Faster and faster until I ran out of power. I had to stop, my lungs demanded it. I stood there panting, knowing that if they found me I'd be dead. At least I could rest knowing that I had put good distance between us.

"Found you!"

_You've got to be kidding me!_

"Ha! You've already tired yourself out after running for 30 seconds!"

"Eevee!" Lin's voice came even though I didn't see her. "Dodge!"

I was too tired to do any such thing. The ground erupted and the koffing slammed me back down. Weary from my mad dashes and the repeated hits, I just managed to get to my feet when the ekans burrowed back into the ground. I looked at my opponent. The koffing was flouting away, facing away from me._ Now's my chance._ I rolled into the cover of a bush. _No one is going to find me here!_ I couldn't see anything but leaves but I still heard the voices of he humans.

"Come to check up in your wonderful strategy, master?" the Rocket said. "It looks like your eevee's already- hey! Where'd it go?"

"Lost track of your opponent?" Lin's unmistakable voice. "That's a newbie mistake alright."

"Oh, I'm tired of this game of tag. You know what; I'll just make do with what I've got here. Ekans, dig attack!"

"What? Ahh!" Lin's voice was interrupted by an explosion.

"Follow it up Koffing!"

I heard a dull slap and Lin's scream got cut short.

Have you ever had the sensation of two intervoices going at the same time? Like one level of thought is what you want to think while another is saying what you really think and yet another voice even deeper than that whispers the truth.

I forced these words to appear in my mind. _The girl deserves it! After all she put me through this is the least that should happen to her!_

Even while I thought this another level of my mind said, _a human attacking another using pokemon? This isn't right, you know it's not! Not for anyone!_

'What was I doing here and not with the others?'

"Jerk." I think Lin tried to scream that but it just came out like a weak suggestion. "What are you doing?"

"Ekans, why don't you give our guest a nice hug?" The Rocket laughed and I heard Lin gasp. "You know, you're not as good of a master that you think you are. You can't even get a pokemon to obey you."

_It's just a human_ I forced, _my idiotic master! Some self proclaimed master over me and all other pokemon!_

_You know, she never actually said that she was your master. Why am I even thinking that she did?_

'Master? You mistake our relationship.'

"Umhf." Lin struggled to day something but it was drowned out by a horrible snapping sound.

"Oh! Looks like we've lost a rip. Oh well." The Rocket started up his laugh. "Face it, you aren't good. You never were and you never will be. Just think of this as an early retirement from life as a failure."

_He's right. There's no way we had a chance. Stupid and weak, I can never win. Why try?_

_I beat that pidgey, didn't I? Why should I back down because of a few mistakes?_

'Do not be discouraged at a few failures at first.'

"Hum? Trying to say something?" The Rocket said. "Ekans let her go. Let's see what the master has to say before the end. Right before the great master and the ferocious eevee fall."

_Fall? Were we even up there? You can't fall much lower then we started. Look at me! I'm hiding in a bush!_

_Fall? Fine but watch out because there's only one way to go from here. Here? Why am I here? Why am I hiding?_

'Fall? Me? Never.'

"Well what do you have to say pokemon master?"

"Not… master." Lin panted out.

"What was that?" The Rocket said. My own mind echoed the same.

"I'm not you. I'm not some master." Lin took a short break to recover her breath. "You are wrong if you think that I am."

'You mistake our relationship.'

"A master rules over their pokemon. The pokemon are tools used to inflict harm on another. They are to be discarded or traded for better. You do the things necessary to work them up to what you want with out regard of cost and only cry with them because you see the loss of time and work. That is a master. I'm no master."

'Not like anything like that matters to the master.'

"I'm a trainer. And I know what my purpose is."

'Didn't anyone tell you what your purpose was?'

"I'm going to find pokemon and we will be a team. Each one with his place."

'Learn who you are and where you fit in on that team.'

"We will be the best. We will be the strongest. And as long as we're together we will never fall. We will lift each other up."

'Why would I ever need someone to lift me up?'

"We'll all have weaknesses but we'll grow together to protect these weaknesses. We'll be united."

'Then help it grow as much as you can.'

"We will be united." Lin had started to shout now and with everything she had she growled, "in our desire to be the strongest!"

_The strongest?_

'I was the strongest at the farm.'

_But things change._

'Just change.'

_Can I trust her?_

'Cling to the ones that share your dreams.'

Lin spoke, "A master rules by fear but honor is a trainer's power."

"That's enough." The Rocket said. "It's over. Ekans, wraaaaaaahhhhhh!" Much to the Rocket's surprise and mine, we found his ankle connected to my teeth. "Oh! What the heck, you little monster!" He shook me off. I ran over to Lin, taking my place between her and the Rocket. I looked back at Lin's surprised face. She shook herself off and stood.

"Eevee?" she said.

"The strongest huh?" I said. "You know, that doesn't sound too bad."

"Ahhh! Ekans! Koffing! Just destroy the little monster!"

"Alright eevee!" Lin said. "Let's do this. Run in a zigzag pattern towards the rocket."

I obeyed. I ran towards the rocket, making sudden jerking patterns. Nothing but the koffing stood in my path but I knew better. The ekans was there.

"Ha! Trying to make his moves unpredictable so I won't be able to hit him with dig! Fool! Koffing, poison gas!"

The pores of the koffing spewed out more gas then usual, covering the space in front of the Rocket.

"Ignore it eevee! Go through it now!"

No time to doubt or think. I straightened out and ran to the cloud.

"Tackle, koffing!"

The koffing moved through the cloud to execute the order. Just as I reached it I felt the ground move. I hurtled myself through the cloud by somersaulting. The ekans burst out of the ground and collided with the koffing from the air. Thump! Both fell to the ground.

"The same trick twice rocket? Eevee, tail whip that sucker to death."

I ran to the ekans and turned sharply to give him a taste of fluff. Something felt strange though. I felt sick, like I had eaten too much or too little. My body started to heat up and my vision was a little hazy.

I managed to get in one more tail whip before the Rocket said. "Ha, look at what it cost you. Your eevee is poisoned."

"Shows how much you know." Lin said. "Eevee, I hope you still have that berry in your mouth. Eat it and get back here."

It surprised me that I still had that smelly berry Lin gave me in my mouth. It was still hidden away in the space farthest from my tongue. _This had better be worth it._ I crunched down on it and my sickness vanished.

"A pecha berry! Why you koffing! Ekans! Get up!" only ekans responded. "Koffing? What happened? That's only two hits?"

"Giovanni must not recruit for intelligence. Dig is a ground move and is super effective against poison. Your tackle attack put koffing right in its way."

Now it was the Rockets turn too growl. "Alright then. Koffing return! Now ekans lets just fight this out one on one. Dig!"

"Eevee, get behind me a little." Once I had done so she said, "Ok, wait for my order to dodge right."

"That's it?" the rocket said. "You're just going to stand there?"

I was thinking the same thing. Silence spread over the forest. The ekans was now crawling beneath me at this moment and Lin just wanted me to stand here.

"Right!" I responded immediately. The ekans came from under me again but I wasn't there. "Tackle then go to the rocket's side!"

"I don't get it." said the Rocket. "How do you know when… of course! That's why you told it to run in the first place! You were measuring how fast my ekans can over underground!"

"Now I get it." I said. "Now with the hits this monster took from the koffing it should be a piece of cake to finish off."

"Well, don't think for a second that dig is the only thing my ekans can do. Tackle!"

"Go all out eevee. You can make it."

The ekans slithered to me and I ran to it. We met in the middle of the field. I ran into him with my full force and him with his. We bounced off of each other.

"Ohi!" I said. "I hope that that's not your plan form now on."

"Do it again!" both human's shouted.

And we did. Over and over again until I had the largest head ache in the world. Then I heard the order to come back. I didn't know if it was from Lin or the Rocket but I treaded back to Lin. She looked at me with a worried face. I then realized that my problems were more than just a headache. My entire body was shaking. I felt horrible, worse than when that squirtle hit me. I was about to faint. I knew I couldn't take another hit and so did Lin. And so did the Rocket.

"One more and it's over." He said.

"Shouldn't you be worrying about yours?"

I glanced at the ekans. It appeared to be in the same state as me. Neither one of us were going to last one more round. It was all down to one thing.

"Speed."

_I am so screwed._ I'm not sure how fast that ekans is but I was positive it was faster than me. Like I've said, speed was never my thing.

"Don't worry." Lin said. She crouched next to me. "Now here is what you've got to do." She handed me a berry and told me her plan. On the opposite side I could see the Rocket dong the same thing with his ekans even giving the monster a berry. _All down to speed? Maybe I underestimated Lin. Just a little._

"Ready?" I looked out to the field. The ekans came towards me with blinding speed until-

"Now!" the Rocket said. The ekans struck to my right. The only thought I had was _wow! I'm sure glad I listened!_ But my body responded immediately. I jerked left, missing the ekans by hairs.

"Now!" Lin said.

"Ekans! Eat the oran berry and turn around!"

"Not going to happen! It's our turn now!" I bit down on the berry in my mouth feeling energy stream down my legs. Using the momentum of my charge, I pivoted to face my opponent. "Check this out!" The new energy jolted me forwards faster then I had ever thought I'd go. The ekans only had time to watch my paws slam into his face. It fell, it didn't get back up.

"No." the Rocket whispered. "No, this… this just can't be happening."

"Oh, it's happening alright." Said Lin.

"But… you were supposed to go to the right?"

"What? Like I always do?" Lin smiled. "Pokemon training isn't just blasting away. It's about team work. You've got to know your place on the team. One of my roles is to anticipate what the other trainer is thinking. By letting you think I always go right you became very easy to predict."

"But where did you get so many rare berries?"

"The orphanage paid my way through life up till now. Every penny I earned at my job went to my very own berry farm. Having the right berries makes a big difference, don't you think?"

"How," the Rocket collapsed to the ground. "How could I have lost with two pokemon?"

"Because you're a master. And I'm a trainer."

I was at her side. But her face was easy to see. She looked calm, like she had won some great battle but on her face there was a look of concern. It was like a warrior that knew that, even though this battle was won there would be more to come. The part that disturbed me is that she seemed to like it. She was hungry for more. All that's happened to us and she is hungry for more.

Much more then I ever expected would happen to us. Things that would tear us apart and bind us together even tighter, but in this moment we were a team for the first time. Pokemon and trainer.

I was at her side, as I am now at her side, and will always be at the side of **My Trainer.**

* * *

**End credits:**

**Is that what I was supposed to call it? Maybe I should make a poll about that subject.**

**Thanks for reading the very first chapter of Leaving Home. Much more is to come.**


	2. That Night in Viridian Forest

**Author's Note:**

**What is the sound of one hand clapping?**

**And now that you've been inspired, let's continue. Please read and review.**

* * *

**That Night in Viridian Forest**

They didn't believe us. Lin tried talking to every adult she could after the police turned her away. No one listened. Eventually the police came to us and said that no one was at the gym, Giovanni had already left and to stop making up stories just because we failed the tests. That last part got me.

"Failed! We defeated two monsters and you say we failed? Ha, we could take on any test those losers could have-"

"Tell your eevee it should be quiet when humans are talking." Said the police officer.

I would have gotten him but Lin scooped me up in her hard bony arms. "Sorry. It won't happen again." She said.

_That bugs you know. If he wanted to fight, the police should have just come to me. But noooo, he just had to talk to my trainer and label me as eevee._ I guess that it's ok though. I am an eevee after all and dang proud of it. At least I wasn't human. Of course not all human were that bad.

"I guess I was just too jealous." Lin said. "Well, I'll stop right now Sir!" Lin's voice wasn't built for fake sincerity. Jagged and scratchy, as it is, it probably wasn't built for anything but making little children cry. What ever that voice sounded like to the police, I don't know but he tipped his hat and left. I looked at my trainer.

Lin-Ka-Ota, the girl weirdo. Like most beginners, she was fourteen years old. Unlike most trainers, she didn't show it. Not that normal sized, not that normal looking, not that average. She seemed to be faulting a lot of abilities that other trainers had. She did have one advantage. One killer cool pokemon.

That would be me.

"Well, I tried." She said. "It's their own fault if something happens now."

"Gezz Lin, I hope that's not your battle plan. If it is please leave me out." I know she couldn't understand me but at least the words were out there. "Are we just going to walk away then?"

"I guess it wasn't a complete waste though." Said Lin. She used her free hand to reach into her jacket. Shifting me to the side she pulled something out. "At least we got this out of it."

I realized that she had the ball that rocket had given her. _What had she called it? An ultraball? _It looked like a pokeball but the coloring was off. Oh well, it didn't matter to me if she never shoved me in there.

"You know, it is kind of funny," I said. "If you think about it, we totally robbed that from him. Really, we beat up his pokemon then took that ultraball. Who's the bad guy here?"

Lin shifted my weight back onto two arms after putting back into her jacket. Then we started down a path I knew lead to the pokemon center. "That ultraball's going to come in handy one day. That money we got will help too. Ha, it's about time we got a prize."

"So prize is what you're calling it. Well I think I'm going to receive a prize when I break into the glowing box of food tonight. Unless someone loves you enough to feed you now."

That was a bit puzzling. Why would Lin be happy to have the love of a rocket? Who cares though if it was enough to eat something other then berries? This four-a-day fruit diet just wasn't cutting it. I needed sustenance.

Lin walks pretty quickly with her pair of small legs so we soon arrived the pokemon center. She had already healed me early or so I got to avoid the dreadful trip to the back room this time. Of course with our luck I knew I'd be back soon. Ignoring the dirty looks from some of he trainers we had talked to earlier, we set up a place by a window.

I leaped out of Lin's arms to check out the glowing box. I was confident that now I would get something. Now the only obstacle was choosing what I wanted. There were a lot of different shaped and colored wrappers to choose from. _Blue or red, square or circle, maybe that green star shaped one._ I glanced back at Lin. The chair, like most things in this world, was too large for Lin but she seemed to adapt to it. It was one of those big, red, cushy ones. Her feet were on the seat itself. She was leaning back on the chair which was propped upon the wall by the window. The chair, resting on two legs, formed a 'v' in which Lin in the middle was writing in one of the many books that she keeps in her jacket. _One day I'll have to ask how she keeps so much stuff in there._ I looked at the other trainers near the fire place. They all had fanny packs or backpacks. I'd never seen them write books either. All they did was play around with some little red toy.

I looked back through the glass that separated me from my food. _I could sit here all day._ Then I spotted it. There was only one left, up in the corner, I had missed it before because it was shadowed by a boring brown box but that was irrelevant now. It was shaped like a triangle and it wasn't too big but it did have something that set it apart from all others. _Three colors! Green, blue and red! That could only mean one thing! It was three times better then all of the others!_ I checked around to see if anyone else had spotted it as well. All the pokemon that were in the center at the time didn't look hungry but looks can be deceiving. I looked at Lin who was still scribbling. If I was to pull this off I would have to use all of my skill, all of my class, all of my power.

I calmly walked to my trainer, as to not give away my discovery. My body moved forward on its own. The true fight was to hold it back from running or shaking in excitement. The stretch between Lin and I seemed to grow instead of shrink and even though I couldn't see them I just knew every pokemon's eyes were on me. They were just waiting for me to give myself away.

Slowly I reached Lin. I didn't risk a glance at the other pokemon but I could feel their eyes bore into me. The battle wasn't over yet. I had to play cool. I jumped up to Lin's chair and nuzzled my way between her and the book. The book contained a drawing of an ekans and a few other words and numbers.

"You like the drawing?" Lin said. "This is the book I use to take notes on the pokemon we find. We won't ever be caught off guard, because I'll study them all. I'll be able to predict and form strategies against them and everything."

I looked back at the book. "The ekans that I fought had bigger teeth."

"I knew you'd like that idea."

_Right._ I tugged at Lin's jacket a little then jumped down. I took a few steps to the box of food then looked back to see if Lin had caught so obvious a hint.

"Oh," she said, "You must be hungry. It has been a while since you've had a good meal." _No kidding._ "Alright then, I guess we can splurge this one time to celebrate." She rocked back her chair, left her book and followed me. "After all, I want to check to see if this little guy works."

I was walking at her side as not to give myself away at this critical stage of my plan. Out of the corner of my eye I swear I saw all the monsters waiting for a slip up. Out of the other corner I saw Lin pull yet another object out of her jacket. With feigned interest, I turned my head from the box approaching me and looked at what was in Lin's hand. It was a smallish grey round flat thing. _Wopdy doo._

When we got to the box instead of immediately seeing and buying the box of three colors, Lin decided to knell down and give me another look at the grey thing. It was small, grey, round and flat still but it did have a screen on one side which I hadn't noticed before. The screen just had lots of numbers. "This is the electronic coin." Lin explained. "This keeps track of the money we have. When we win a battle, this connects with the pokedex of the other trainer and transfers half of their money over to our storage of money."

"So you're saying that when we are done beating up our victim, this metal thing steals peoples love and puts it into your metal heart there then you also get to take what ever is on him."

This talk about Lin's metal heart had bored me before it even started. I nudged the box to remind her of why we were here.

"Yes, it should work to open this up too." Lin got up and studied the box. She seemed to study it for eternity. Evidently she didn't understand the urgency of the situation. At any moment another pokemon would come up and take the last of the triple colored boxes. _What's so difficult? Can't you see it?_

"Humm…" said Lin. "Which one would be better at this stage of your training."

"What?" _Training, she was thinking about training at a time like this?_ In a voice barely containing the impatience within me I said, "Lin, just buy the flipping box. You get it? The box with three colors. Buy the box!"

"I mean, I don't exactly know what your strengths and weaknesses are yet. I mean, if I give you the incorrect food now, I could set us back for year."

"The only incorrect food would be the ones without three colors."

"I mean, what if I gave you a light meal but you needed the calories to buff up your muscle power. Or a heavy meal but you need to be light on your feet."

"Or a crappy one colored box when I needed a box when I needed a box of three colors."

"Hmmm… what a difficult- hey! Why didn't I see that before?" My heart jumped for joy had she found it? I tried to prevent myself from false hope by reminding myself that Lin probably choose the wrong box. "This box is designed for eevees!" _Hopefully not for their misery._ "No matter what three paths an eevee might take this is perfect." _Oh gosh, she's going to get it!_

Lin extended her hand and put the metal heart to the box. Then she put her other hand to the box and pressed some numbers. The box made some weird scratchy sounds and started to move the food it kept locked from me. Then slowly, so slowly, the machine dropped the boring brown box.

"All right! No, wait. What just happened?" I said.

Lin reached down and pulled out the brown box. "Sweet! I can't believe our good luck. What are the chances of this vending machine having a meal especially designed for eevees?"

_This can't be happening. I didn't even get a box with a color. Brown, I hate brown._

"And it's brown like you are."

_Err… well…_

She didn't give me the box. Instead she marched back to the chair. I had no choice but to follow. I grumbled back to the spot ignoring the mocking faces of the monsters which I just knew were watching me. When we reached the chair, Lin stooped down and quickly opened to box.

"Well will you look at that." I said, "The food is brown too." Mush, paste, weird textured meat, I couldn't tell what it was but I could tell what it wasn't. It wasn't food.

"Here you go! Enjoy a well deserved feast."

I thought back to the warm food at the farm. "We just don't have the same definition of that word."

Lin got back up in her chair, leaning it back to the wall. I just stared at my slop. I looked out the window. _Slightly dark, no sun, hint of red, it was time for night._ Maybe if I slept I would forget how hungry I was and not have to eat this mush. The growl in my stomach protested but my eyes voted yes. My taste buds threatened revolt. Nevertheless I lowered my face and started to eat. "Thank goodness, it's flavorless." All in all, that's the best I could have asked for.

About half way through my halfway pleasant torture, Lin said, "Tomorrow we'll hit the forest. We'll have to wake up early to get there before everyone else."

_Forest forest… that word sounds familiar but… wait! Viridian forest! The land of bug trainers? The one we weren't ready for two days ago? That forest?_

Lin was looking out the window. "It shouldn't be too bad now that we've got our strategy down." She looked back at me. "What do you say?"

"Would you understand me if I said no?"

"All right! It's settled."

"Of course."

* * *

"I can't believe she beat me." The Rocket grunted. "She ruined everything. Thanks to her, I'm so screwed."

He planed to be Giovanni's 1# man and it all backfired on him. Now he was sitting on the bench in front of one of the offices in the Viridian Gym and having a lot of time to think over his mistakes in the last battle. The Rocket also thought about the punishment he was going to receive when that door opened. Which it did at just that moment.

A woman in civilian clothing came walking out of the office. Even if she wasn't dressed in her uniform, there was no fooling the Rocket. He knew that the woman was a member of team rocket. She just had the look. She didn't even seem to have seen him for a second. Then, without looking at him, she just made a sound in the back of her thought and walked back into the room. The Rocket got up and walked through the open door.

The woman was now standing besides a man in a big chair which meant he must be important. The man did have on his rocket uniform which tripled his scariness. The big scyther by his side didn't help the Rockets disposition either.

"Well," the administrator began. "It doesn't look like anyone believed him. It looks like you got lucky."

_That's funny. _The Rocket thought. _I really don't feel that lucky at all._

The administrator was silent for a while, then spoke, "I'm told that this kid beat your koffing and ekans with one eevee, is that correct?"

The Rocket knew better then to actually have the audacity to speak. He just nodded his head.

The administrator seemed to be in deep thought. "Well, what a wonderful example to you. It shows that even the weakest pokemon can win if their opponent doesn't handle their pokemon correctly. Don't you agree?"

The Rocket nodded.

"Yes! I think you can really learn from this. It's a marvelous opportunity. In fact I know how we can make sure you really learn this lesson." The administrator looked at the woman on his right and nodded. The woman walked around the table to where the Rocket was standing.

The Rocket didn't know what to expect but getting kicked in the gut wasn't it. As he lay sprawled all over the floor, he felt a hand take the two pokeballs off of his belt. "I'll be taking those, trash."

The Rocket caught his breath and got up on one knee, holding his gut. His vision was blurry but he recognized the sound of a door being opened. Something was tossed a few feet from him. When his vision cleared he saw two familiar pokeballs.

"Here are your original pokemon. Two bug types right? Not that bug types are worth mentioning."

_Does this mean what I think it does?_

"No," the administrator said. "You're not fired, not quite yet. I just want you to learn that team rocket will not provide pokemon to people that fail. If you want powerful pokemon, you will have to earn them. Until then you will have to settle for these." The administrator smiled. "And don't worry about proving yourself. You will have an opportunity soon enough. Very soon. In fact, we are expecting a special delivery today and I'm sure you will come in handy."

* * *

"Then let's go kid!" Lin said.

The bug trainer looked just as small as Lin. He couldn't even be ten. "You have no mercy do you?" I said. "We're going to beat up a little kid now?"

The child picked out a ball from his waist and gave it an underhanded toss, more or less in my direction. "I'll show you stranger! This is my forest. Go caterpie."

The light filled the air and I found myself face to face with my first bug monster. It was some smallish, green, ugly looking thing. Compared to the monsters I had already fought it didn't look that scary, just a little pathetic.

"All right eevee, show him what's up! Tackle."

"Jezz, you make it sound like the end of the world here." I obeyed. As I bolted to the caterpie the kid yet something that sounded like 'sling slop'. A white string shot out of the caterpie's mouth towards me. Maybe I should have dodged but I honestly didn't think that it would hurt me. It didn't but it did coat me with a lot of sticky stuff. "Great, this will take of ever to come out."

I tackled the caterpie and backed off, waiting for some counter attack. The kid trainer just yelled, "String shot!"

"String shot," Lin said helpfully. "It's a move that will lower your speed."

"Oh no. You mean that I'll be slower then I already am?" Still I decided to put that bit of info in permanent storage, just in case. I ran to caterpie, letting the string hit me, and then performing my tackle attack again. I backed off just a little this time, still expecting something to happen but the kid just put in another order for string shot.

"You know, you might want to dodge that." Lin said.

"Don't worry Lin." I said. "I'll knock it our before it even gets to attack me." I put some space between the caterpie and me so I could get a good running start I figured it I could just get a critical hit, it would be all over. I jogged towards my opponent. I tackle him but it didn't receive the result that I wanted. What I did revive when I got back to Lin's side was another coat of string. "You know, more than anything else, this is just kind of disgusting."

"Eevee, it's not like you're in mortal danger or anything but you realize that it's only going to get more difficult to move?"

_She's right. I have been slowing down._ I could only make a slow walk over to my opponent. When I was no more then five steps, I got counted with another sticky string attack. The momentum of my walk carried me a half a step forward and then I rocked back to my previous position. I could barely move my head to check my status but from what I could feel and see I must have looked fat. _Well, this is inconvenient._ I thought because my mouth was covered in string.

"Good caterpie! Once more!"

I felt one more round of string wash over me. _Just wonderful. I can only move my eyes now._ I could only look at one side of the battle field. The trainer and the caterpie looked pleased with themselves.

"Now you're in for it! HA!" the kid said. "This will be my greatest victory yet! HA! It's a good thing your eevee's attack is so weak." The kid was lucky that my mouth was covered at the moment. "Now you'll see the true terror of my strategy!"

"Kid, relax." Lin said. "It's just a caterpie." Her words showed no sense of urgency or danger so I relaxed a little.

"But look, my caterpie has a focus band!"

"Huh?"

"HA! I wouldn't think that a newbie like you would know what one was. It's an extremely valuable item that increases my caterpie's rate of growth. Using my awesome strategizing, my caterpie will grow to be the strongest butterfly ever! Tackle!"

The caterpie just stood there. I waited a few seconds but nothing changed. _No wait! If I strain my eyes I can just make out the tinniest little nudge forward._

"Wait," Lin said. "Don't tell me that the focus band makes it harder for you caterpie to move."

"Yeah, well, that's the draw back. That's why I string shot you."

"Oh boy eevee. Get ready for a long one. Here's what you've got to do. I want you to start rocking back and forth and when it gets close, I want you to tip yourself over on it."

_Some plan._ I strained everything in my body from my heart to my fur to make just the tinniest movement forward then to the back. _This is going to take forever._ Because I had nothing else to look at, I just stared at my opponent. He seemed to be as frustrated as I was. _But where's his trainer?_

"No, really, it's all about the poison types here." The kid's voice was coming from my left, just out of my sight. "Everyone's always after weedle's poison sting."

Then from not to far away from the kid's voice, Lin's said, "That's what I thought. I brought lots of poison cures up wit me. I think that out of all the different status conditions, poison should be the most common."

_What? What is she doing? I can't believe that she is fratnazizing with the enemy!_

"Really? Why do you think?"

"Well, it's sure damage. Defense or special defense doesn't even add in."

"True but a burn can be just as bad and lowers you attack. I know because a trainer recently came through here with a charmander."

"Hmm, you've got a point there. Hey eevee!"

_Oh, now you're paying attention to me._

"Keep up the good work!"

_Come a little closer Lin. I want to tip over on you._

The caterpie approached me with the fury of a dead slakoth. I had what, one, two hours till it reached me? I guess it was ok because my deadly fall over attack needed a lot of time to charge up to its full strength. A lot of time.

* * *

"All right, easy now. You don't want this guy to wake up. Trust me." The rocket handler waved the truck into the gym's garage. He kept one eye on the truck and one on the pokemon inside the cage in the back of the truck. "We've already had some take away something nasty from this guy. He's not exactly your friendly type."

The truck driver sighed. He knew that this wasn't for him but for all the new grunts waiting to receive the boss's new pokemon. He had been partners with this particular rocket from the days team rocket hadn't even gone public and if he learned anything about him it was that he was a ham.

The new grunt's eye's widened. They were all there to receive the boss's newest weapon. They considered it a privilege to be trusted for such an important duty. The pokemon must have been extremely dangerous if all of them were necessary to secure it.

"Yes, sorry," continued the Rocket. "This one's a hand full. Many Rockets have gotten a taste of this guy and got put in the Rocket hospital." He smiled at the grunts now ailing faces. The mention of the hospital always did the trick. The Rocket hospital was a place of terror in the eyes of any rocket, from newbie's to the old ones. It's where rocket's went to recover from inures that would start up too many questions if any other hospital would treat them. The thing was the rocket hospital wasn't known to be the most advanced place in the ways of anesthetics and such things like comfort.

"I don't see the problem." A loud voice interpreted. The rocket turned around to see a grunt in the front looking directly at him. Unlike the rest, this grunts face wasn't any unusual color nor was he captivated by the rocket's speech. In fact, he looked rather bored. "It's not like it's very rare. You can see those things in this city, heck; even some of us here have that pokemon. What makes it so dangerous?"

Even the truck driver grimaced. It truly had been a pain to get this pokemon. If not for the pokemon itself, then from the gym they stole it from. Some rockets had not come back.

The rocket focused his eyes on the grunt in the front. The act was gone. "You have no idea what power this monster contains or how many rockets were sacrificed to steal it. Trust me," he held up a vile in front of their faces. "If it weren't for this you would all be in the greatest danger. Now shut up and get back. We don't want to wake it up."

But the rocket didn't have to worry about that. The pokemon had been awake for quite some time.

* * *

The brush hit another snag in my hair. I knew that yelling out was pointless. Lin already knew what she'd done and knew that it was necessary as much as I did. That wasn't going to stop me complaining though.

"Ouch! Hey, softer and slower please!"

"Sorry," Lin grunted, which wasn't that attractive. "But this would be easier if I just used the pokeball."

That idea shut me up. Still, this brushing routine was not anymore enjoyable. At least it was getting to take less and less time. I was getting better at dodging the caterpie's string shots and Lin's brushing ability was also improving.

Lin gave the brush one last jerk. "There, now you're clean. And it took less then a half an hour too!"

"And now it's ready for the next battle." I had gotten tired of caterpie's really fast. Ever since I had entered this forest it's been the only thing I'd ever seen. They weren't that difficult to defeat but their string shot made these battle's way too long. The real challenge was not to fall asleep during our fight. The long brushes every time after to remove the string weren't that enjoyable either. Lin had suggested that it could all be removed if I would enter the pokeball for 'only one little bitty second' but there was no way I was going to let that happen. I'd sooner let her try out her other idea which was using scissors. _Ha! Like I would let someone with hair as poorly kept as hers put a blade near mine._

"We've spent a lot of time here." Lin looked around; she seemed to be taking in the scenery. Or realizing that she was completely lost.

I took the opportunity to look around too. _Trees. Lots and lots of trees._ I had to admit that I had been impressed the first few minuets. It was my first forest after all and trees weren't that common on the farm. However I quickly learned that once you saw one tree, you've seen them all. We didn't even enter the trees, Lin preferred the grassy meadows and large dirt paths that twisted and turned ever which way like an ekans playing twister. Some paths lead to small quiet groves that look like they hadn't been touched by man, eevee or monster. Leaves scattered the floor resembling freshly fallen snow. It was super fun to rush in and mess everything up. I felt like a grand explorer, leaving my dirty mark all over this pristine wilderness. Every once and a while we would run into a caterpie or the paths would open up to a grand meadow filled with trainers with caterpie's. Really it had gotten very boring very fast.

"It's getting-" Lin began but she gasped. Trust me; you never want to hear Lin gasp. It sounds like a small animal choking to death. "It's a metapod!"

I looked to her line of sight and saw a tree. _Great, she's lost it._

"Perfect!" Lin said. "I was just thinking that we needed to step it up. These caterpie's just aren't cutting it anymore. They aren't worth the time. This guy will be a new challenge for us."

"What, you want me to fight the tree?"

Lin picked up a dirt clod from the ground and tossed it at my leafy opponent. I was about to suggest that she leave this battle to me when a large green object fell out of the tree.

"What's that?" I asked. "Some kind of fruit?" The eyes opened and it started to wobble. "Oh, that's what I'm fighting. Looks like an unripe banana."

"Looks like its angry eevee. Get ready."

"Gee, I don't know Lin. How can you tell an angry wobble from a happy wobble?"

"All right eevee, tackle."

"Of course. That's the only attack know." I ran to my enemy. He just stood there. _Man, why don't my opponents ever treat me seriously._ I cleared the difference between us and leaped up into the air. I talked the metapod. I might as well have tackled the tree. I bounced off and landed on my butt. "Uff. Why do I feel like I did more damage to myself than to it?"

"It's using harden." Lin explained. "It's a technique that raises the defense. Just keep tackling it before it gets any harder."

"I can't wait until I learn some new attacks." I said. "These battles are getting repetitive." I ran into the metapod again. It was even less effective than before. "Gezz, no wonder everyone hates bug monsters."

I looked back at Lin. She was sitting on a grassy area eating some of her nasty berries. "What do you think you're doing? You're just going to sit there and let me do all the work?"

Lin looked at me innocently. "Just keep tackling it. A wild metapod doesn't know any attacks. Eventually it's got to give way."

I hoped it would be soon. I tackled and tackled and tackled. The metapod just felt harder and harder and harder.

"Hey eevee, I've got great news!" I looked back at Lin. She had taken out one of her books again. "The metapod can't raise its defense any higher than it is right now."

_Woopy!_ "Can't I use tail whip"

"Don't bother using tail whip though. It will just harden itself again."

_This is going to be a long day._

* * *

"Who does that rocket think he is." The Rocket mumbled to himself. The Rocket walked down the grey hall to the storage center. He had been made to look like a fool in front of all the others. The only consolation he could provide himself with was that at least he hadn't flinched at the older rockets whip.

He took another glance at his watch. He wasn't late but he quickened his pace anyways. It was his turn to watch the 'ever so deadly' pokemon. "Why did I have to speak out like that?" he knew why though. The knowledge of what had happened to him had spread fast. It was hard to be demoted lower than grunt but he had managed it. He felt naked with out his powerful poison pokemon. Now to be with his bug types again seemed more of a restriction of his potential than anything else.

He entered the storage room and received a reproving stare from the grunt on duty. "You're early." He said.

_I can't even overachieve right?_ "I guess I just walk to fast."

"A rocket should walk perfect, not too fast or slow."

_Give me a break._ The Rocket glanced around the room looking for the tell tail signs of being a newbie. His eyes focused on a large and empty water bottle by the grunt. _Bingo._ "Well if you want to use up all of your time I guess I could just go back and return later. I can't promise I'll be back in time though. After all, it's a long walk to the drinking fountains. I really need to take a nice long slurp too. Hey do you know how those things work? It's all about the water pressure. Tons and tons of water pressure. It's in a big tank just full of gallons of water that gushed down into pipes under the earth. It passes through pumps which releases the explosion of liquid that drains into every house hold toilet, kitchen and drinking fountain. Then just the tiniest little twitch of you finger relieves the pipes of their burden and the water flows out into the open air."

"I HATE YOU!" The grunt bolted from the room.

"Not bad." The Rocket said. "Usually I don't even finish before they leave."

He took up the seat the other rocket had left. _Now begins the boring part._ He looked at his duty. He couldn't see it but it was in the large metal box in front of him. He could look through one of the air holes but he wasn't ready to risk that yet.

"Why that pokemon?" the Rocket wondered out loud. "It's not that rare. It's not that powerful. It's not even that tough looking." But there was a reason, even though the Rocket didn't know it. What he did know was enough. Giovanni didn't make stupid moves. If this pokemon was worth stealing from a prestigious gym then it must have a little something special.

The Rocket thought and thought but couldn't find a satisfactory answer. Finally he decided to risk a peek through an air hole. Maybe there would be something that he didn't see before.

He got up and walked towards the box. The Rocket took a quick look. He blinked then took another quick look. "It can't be!" he put his eye right up to the box and searched the interior of the box. "It's gone!"

* * *

"No!" the bug catchers metapod fainted. "I can't believe that you beat my metapod. It was the highest level possible!"

"Yeah, well too bad because my eevees tougher then possible." Lin said.

"Heck yeah!" I said. It took just a little bit of work to pick up the enthusiasm. That must have been the hundredth metapod today. The truth is I didn't think that I would ever find a pokemon more annoying than caterpie. In fact I cursed the whole caterpie family line. If it wasn't the sticky stuff than I was bumping off a rock of a pokemon. I may have died of boredom or maybe just running out of the will to tackle but Lin kept shoving some kind of nasty tasting berry in my mouth. I couldn't stand it but it did keep me refreshed.

"The highest one right?" I turned to Lin. "Dose that mean we're almost out of here."

"I guess this forest doesn't have that many more challenges in store for us then." Lin said. "We mastered it in one day."

_Has it really been one day? Wow, we've spent one whole day in here. It feels like this had been a long week at the least._

"NO! No! AAHHHH! Curses! It's just not possible!" this bug catcher seemed to be taking this pretty hard. "How! An eevee for heavens sake! A pathetic eevee!"

_Oh you're toast human. Tear off arm, break bone, destroy future family… ah, that will work._ I snuck up to his bag and ripped a whole in it. He seemed so disturbed over his loss that he didn't even see me. _You'll be dropping this stuff all over the forest now._

"It's over! My career! My work! My life!" His face was planted to the floor and was pounding the ground with his fists.

Lin was looking at her metal heart when I got back to her. "Hmmm… it's getti-"

"There's no point in living anymore! Just take me now to the world of the dead!"

"Wow. I almost feel sorry we beat him." Lin said. "But it's getting late."

I looked up to the sky but all I saw was leaves. However, it did like it was getting late. "So, are we heading back then?"

Lin didn't respond for a while, so I just listened to the wind blow through the tree canopy. The snapping twigs and cracking branches played the song of this old forest. And the crazy behind us provided the lyrics.

"I'm not good enough to live! I'm not worthy to take another breath of this air! I'd kill myself but I'm not even good enough for that!"

"I've got an idea." Lin said. "We've been here a while and we should just about be out of the forest. I really don't think this forest can offer us any more challenges. Let just go ahead and get out for good."

"You mean I can leave this place and never fight another caterpie again?" I said. "Count me in!"

Lin and Ricochet left the clearing but someone was still there.

"Woe is me! How pitiful could it have gotten but now no one is even here to lend an ear to my sad story! How foolish I was to think that I could make it to Pewter town to face the gym leader. How vain was I to think that my one bug type could make it. Now my ignorance has been exposed me for the weakling I am. Behold, I'm not even halfway through the forest and I've already been forced to turn back.

* * *

"Is everyone in their group?" the administrator shouted. He looked over the crowd of black and red. "Remember, you should be in groups of three!"

There was some more scrambling then everything settled down.

"Good!" The administrator experience gave him the appearance of ice cold even if his interior was bubbling with fear. _If Giovanni finds out before…_ "Let me repeat this situation. We have a very dangerous and very valuable pokemon on the lose. From what we can tell it's in the Viridian Forest. You have been assembled in groups of three so one of you can handle any trainer who stands in our way while the other can catch the pokemon. It is close to the night so you will be relatively unnoticed. Only the fanatical bug catchers out for weedle's will be out now. Still, I want you to go out in civilian clothing. Lets not take any risks here." He motioned to a table in the mist of the crowd. "One package for every team. They contain everything you need including the antidote." The administrator paused. One grunt had raised his hand. Stuffing down his rage and impatience, with more ice he said, "Yes, it appears we have a question. What is it?"

"You've explained the roles of the first and second person on the team, but why three people?"

"Because grunt," the administrator said. "The thirds responsibility is to take the pokeballs off your corpses if you don't get the antidote in time." The room got even more quite. "Any more questions? No? Then let's get going."

The grunts picked out their gear and started filing out of the gym and into the coming night. The administrator turned to the grunt behind him who had reported the missing beast. "You. You were a bug catcher no?"

The Rocket smiled. "One of the fanatical ones. No one knows that forest at night better than me."

"Then you'll be traveling alone. This is your chance to redeem yourself. Don't disappoint me again."

"Don't worry. No one can beat me in my own forest. Just name the person that can."

* * *

"Lin," I said. "I've started to rethink my vote a little." It looked like she did too. Darkness was rapidly approaching, only made worse by the shield of leaves above us. "I'm thinking we should go back."

"I don't get it." Lin said. "We should have been out by now. The bug catchers go through this place twice everyday."

"Yea, but I'm pretty sure their method for picking roads is more sure then randomly picking. Face it, we are lost."

"Eevee, can you smell the way out?"

"What do I look like to you? Even if I could, my nose has been scared for life because of that terrible smell on your jacket."

"No, well I didn't think so."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

Lin was walking a little bit faster now. She made a hideous growling sound in her throat as she scratched it through her checkered scarf. It was a struggle to keep up with her since she would make random jagged movements toward certain paths then immediately change her mind and choose the other.

"It's not like we have reason to panic or anything. The caterpie's and metapods will disappear now right? We might see some weedle's and kakunas but I think we'll just ignore them right. Yeah, we'll just ignore everything and walk straight towards Pewter town. That's what we'll do!"

I realized that Lin was going into panic mode. This was the same way she sounded right before Green beat her, right when she was at the end of her rope. It started to make me worry. Not for myself of course, just for her. That's just the kind of guy I am.

"I'm I going to die?" I said. The bug catcher from the meadows screams crept back to my mind. "I'm a goner, aren't I?"

Lin gave a nervous laugh, something else that doesn't leave her lips quite right. "Don't worry, be happy. Decides, what if you get poisoned. Ha! Who cares? You've bought all the poison cure berries you could right?"

Was she talking to me or to herself? I couldn't tell because I couldn't see her face. She kept a full pace ahead of me, now walking so fast I had to jog to keep up.

"All the trainers are gone now. No one will attack us. And besides, we have mastered this forest right?"

"Pica!"

We froze. Standing directly in front of us was a small, yellow monster. It was just about my size, its ears making it look bigger then it really was. It stood on two feet like a human and had rosy cheeks like one two. Its tail looked as if it had been broken in several ways and run over.

I didn't understand exactly what kind of situation I was in until Lin said, "A pikachu! There are pikachus in this forest? Oh crap!"

"Huh? That's usually my line." I said.

"Hi fuzzy." The pikachu said. "Looks like you're a little lost and tired."

"Uh, yeah. Hey, you wouldn't mind showing us out, right?"

"Sure. I'll try to shed a little light on the subject."

I had just enough time to think, _huh. He said that helpful phrase in a not so helpful way._

"PIKAAAA!" the monster lit up like a mini sun. Bolts of jagged energy danced off his cheeks and then pulsed out to me. Lin shouted something but it was useless. The crackling energy was coming at me too spread out for me to do anything. I stood helplessly and let the energy wash over me. To my surprise it didn't hurt at all.

"What? What was…?" I tried to say because my mouth seemed to be frozen shut.

"Enjoy you're stay in Viridian forest fuzz ball." The monster said. "You'll be here a very long time." It laughed and ran into the forest.

"Wha…" My mouth came unglued but still felt shaky. "What's happening to mmmm…"

"Paralyze condition." Lin's voice came. "The pikachu used thunder wave to make it harder for you to move." This was the first time I heard Lin's voice this way. The unnatural sound and the mask of self confidence that normally creaked out of her were drowned out by the clear ring for fear. "I only brought cures for poison. I don't have anything for paralyze."

I processed what Lin said. _This has to be a joke?_ I shockingly looked up into her face to make sure but it was hidden from me by darkness. The last bit of light had slipped out of sight. Night had fallen in Viridian forest. And so had all my hope to get out.

"What happens now?"

* * *

The Rocket watched the group of rockets turn left, following the curving path. _Fools._ He thought. _That path will only take them deeper into the forest but nowhere near their prey. This pokemon will have gone into the most untouched place of the forest. But even if they had the brains to know that they still couldn't know where to go. No one knows this forest in the darkness like I do._

The Rocket turned down a small path hidden in the dark. He had only followed them this far to make sure they wouldn't follow him. Now that he knew that they weren't there was nothing to stop him from being the one to find the bosses pokemon. And he was determined to be the only one to find it.

The Rocket didn't need a light; he knew exactly where he was. This path would lead him to an area relatively untouched by most bug catchers. In the day it appeared unremarkable. That and the fact that it was way out of the way, not towards either Pewter of Viridian city, made this path one of the least used. It would lead to where the pokemon was sure to go.

He walked down the path for a time. He sensed he should be getting closer to a small field. Having walked this same path many times, he moved quickly, quietly, and even though he couldn't see, totally aware of what was going on around him. This was his forest after all. What could-

"Death!"

The cry made the Rockets soul faint out of his body. He looked around franticly to identify the origin of this new threat.

"What a fool I was! Why of why did I just sit here and complain in my soul? Now my body will suffer the consequences for surly an evil will make food of my flesh."

There appeared to be a delusional kid in this clearing. It was dark and the Rocket didn't recognize the voice but he was sure that it was some wannabe caterpie catcher. These disgusting little frauds just caught the same pokemon over and over again. The Rocket despised them as did all the weedle catchers. Caterpie's were to be a starting base for bug catchers, not the end of the line. Some people just couldn't move on.

Ignoring the death screams, the Rocket strained his night senses and weighed his chances. Deciding that with the noise the fool was making and the veil of darkness hiding his already dark apparel, that it shouldn't be that difficult to pass through undetected.

He directed himself towards the clearing and in a few short steps had passed the unexpected trial. He laughed in his mind at the scared that fool had given him. _I hope that's the last surprise I get tonight. The fool will die for this._ He was referring to the fact that weedle's and kakunas were usually quite irritable in this part of the forest. If he kept up that much noise the weedle's would shut him up with their horns. _Of course I could call the police right now and tell them to pick you up but hey, I've got other things to do. And it's not like you deserve it._ The Rocket continued into the dark until…

"An eevee!"

_What?_

"The weakest of all the furry pokemon! The humiliation cause by losing to one so fluffy! Just as if this nasty normal type wasn't enough, it had to be a strangely dressed boy that backed him up! The winter outfit made me think that he was just full of hot air but no, no, it was I!"

"Well, that's worth an ambulance call." Whispered the Rocket. "Looks like tonight will be my chance for redemption after all."

* * *

Lin yawned. "I have an idea."

I might have screamed but my body was going through another body spasm which kept it tight. Lin's ideas were doing us no good. Every one of them from the mold on the trees to the stares in the sky only seemed to make us more lost. I couldn't hear another idea.

"Let's try to sleep it off!" she said.

_Great. Let's be sitting psyducks for some monster. No thank you._

Unfortunately I didn't have much of a choice. This paralyzes condition made me helpless. Moving was such a pain that Lin just carried me in her arms. My last few fights hadn't gone well at all. The caterpie's and metapods we meet had become a whole new challenge now that I couldn't move correctly. I was getting beat so hard that… uh; I mean, Lin was getting needlessly scared and changed her strategy to taking me up in her arms and running. Luckily, caterpie's and metapods aren't that fast. Lin had previously given me some foul berries which kept me in fighting condition but I could see the desperation growing as she continually used them tot keep me up. She was running out of berries and when she did I was out of luck.

Lin walked a bit more on the path, and then turned off into the trees. Responding to my silent question she said, "We'll go off the path. That way no trainer will stop us."

_And more wild monsters will._

As we entered the thicker trees, it became clear to me that the Viridian forest on the path or even the meadow weren't the trip on the wild side I had thought they were. The path was quiet and peaceful. Off the path it was quiet by way of being super eerie. Although I would have sworn it was impossible a few moments ago, the nonexistent light dimmed. Even though I couldn't move my body, my spirit shivered with feaarr…rrosous desire to protect my cowardly trainer.

"This isn't so bad." Lin said. "Think of the great lesson we are learning. Ha! After this I'm sure we'll never make this same mistake."

_We?_

"Why, its far better here then further in our careers to make our first mistakes. Imagine doing this on victory road. We'd be growlithe food. It's not like we can sleep in the middle of a cave full of dangerous pokemon and tough trainers."

_But in the middle of a forest it's ok._

"And paralyzing isn't the worst thing that could happen. There are status conditions much worse."

_Like death?_

Lin came to a halt, looked around and said, "This is the place." She set me down and started pulling out junk from her jacket. I couldn't get a good look at what she was doing because she carelessly placed me down in a position where I could only see her out of the corner of my eyes. I started to move my head to her direction to see what she'd whip out this time. When I finally got over there though, she had already finished. A piece of cloth was hanging over a string which was attached form one tree to another. The four corners of it seemed to be nailed down, spreading it out in the air. In the middle of everything there as another piece of cloth. All looked as if it had been sewn tighter from old clothing.

"It's my tent and sleeping bag!" Lin said.

"It's a bunch of rags." I said.

"I made them my self."

"I see that."

This is where we'll sleep."

"Funny. I've grown past the point where my first reaction is to think that you are joking."

Lin swept me off my feet and took me into her mighty, two sided fortress. She selfishly went into the 'sleeping bag' and placed me on top of her belly.

"You have fur." She justified.

I had never slept with a human before. I have gotten used to it since then but it was a bit awkward at first. I couldn't curl up in a ball like I normally do or I would have fallen off Lin's stomach and onto the hard floor. Lin's stomach wasn't that big either so no matter how much I moved myself, part of me was being poked by her ribs or was on her hips. Her oversized, puffed out jacket's ability to double as a pillow was shown by its color, crappy brown. Obviously Lin had not thought this out all the way. There was no way I could sleep like this.

Lin could though. I felt her body relax and her ribs stopped jabbing up into me as often as they were. _Well, she falls asleep easily. It's only been about 2 minutes._

Then I got very aware of how small it was in the tent. My senses seemed to tell me that the walls were closing in on me. The pitch black night showed no signs of retreating from its attack, slowly creeping in, as if it knew that I knew that it was there. It only crept slowly along until my terror grew to its awful peak. The two flap tent started whirling around me- no… wait. That was just Lin turning over in her sleep. Now a new kind of pressure built up on me. The one of Lin's bony body.

I tried to speak but all the air that I got had to go to oxygen. I may have wiggled but in that moment my body started to go into paralyzes again. I was as stuck as a mankey with his hand caught in a jar.

_Lin! Listen to my mind. You're crushing me. Come on, you're supposed to be my trainer! Can't you feel my emotions or something? I'll give you a hint. I'm not happy, I'm not sad, and it rhymes with GET-THE-HECK-OFF-OF-ME!_

Lin made a grunting sound.

_Oh, what's that? I didn't understand you with the mankey accent._

Lin moved again and released me from my prison. Then she curled up in a ball.

I didn't like the cold ground but I decided to avoid further Lin contact for the time being. I curled up and… nothing. I couldn't sleep. I tried counting mareep. I tried singing a song. I thought of Lin, caterpie's, boring brown box food and other dumb stuff. I must have turned around several hundred times. Nothing.

"Dang. It's almost as if I can't sleep and be paralyzed at the same time."

Lin started to make noises, short and raspy sounding.

"Sure, laugh there in you're nice thin sheeted- huh?"

A blade of moonlight seeped through the trees and slide onto the tent. In the pure light I saw Lin shivering under her blanket. _The cold? No, she's sweating._ At least that's what it looked like. Curled up and her hands were tugging at the scarf that covered her neck.

_Ah! She must be too hot! Serves you right, wearing all those clothes and hogging all the blankets. Seriously. The only skin I can see is your face girl. I wouldn't be surprised if you were dehydrating in all that junk. How do you even sleep?_

CRRRAACK! The sound jabbed through the quiet, unimpeded by the thick darkness that covered us. The sound of crushing and snapping leaves sounded like braking bones and the echoing thud that followed was like a grown of a dead man.

I don't know whether it was that or Lin's sudden jerk to the upright position that got me but for once I was glad that I couldn't move or make a sound.

"What the dairy hecker was that?" Lin said.

"How am I supposed to know? You're supposed to be the expert! What's going to try to kill us this time?"

"Err…" Lin appeared to be in a deep meditation or maybe she wasn't all awake yet. "Maybe we should get going. I'm not sure what woke us up but I doubt it was a caterpie."

Before I had time to make a negative comment, Lin packed the tent and blanket into her jacket. She took me up into her arms and raced off in no particular direction.

"I hope you run as fast as you pack Lin"

* * *

_Oh well._ Thought the Rocket. He knew that it was a matter of time before the pokemon gave itself away. Naturally it would be running as fast as it could. It was only a matter of time before it hit something.

What had been a fast walk now turned into a jog. He knew he had time. The other rockets would be on the other side of the forest by now; no one would get there for at least an hour. Maybe even more if they didn't knew the forest that well.

Although the tree skape only aloud the smallest bit of light to revile the leafy forest ground, the Rocket moved through with ease. After all, he had grown up in this forest. Light or no light made little importance to him. While others would have their senses dampened by the dark, his came alive. This was his forest. This was his time. Nobody to stop him. Nobody even close to him.

"But what's this." Most of this part of the forest was untouched but this part was broken in. it was as if a large pokemon had been sleeping here. It couldn't have been the regulars though. "My prey?" the Rocket bent down and felt the floor. Through the leaves he felt holes. A tent had been here. "A trainer."

As he stood up, the Rockets eyes caught something in the narrow shaft of moon light. It was a long strand of black hair.

"Hello friend. Now who could you belong to?"

The Rocket felt his surroundings to figure out where they had gone. He was happy to find that it was straight into the path which his prey was headed.

* * *

"Lin," I said. "Why do I feel like we've gotten closer to what made that noise. That noise doesn't sound fun. That's the sound we don't want to hear. Lin, WHY ARE WE HEADED TOWARDS THE SOUND!"

"Shh." Was all Lin had to say.

Words that would have made my mother cry came to mind but another spasm kept them from my mouth. I couldn't believe that I was still paralyzed. _Doesn't this just wear off after a while or something? AAHHH! I hate pikachus._

Lin kept running through the dark, stumbling as she went. I guess I shouldn't have complained just yet though. With me in her front arms, it would be terrible if she hit a tree.

"Umf!" The air escaped out of me as Lin's body and the tree squeezed me in the middle. We all fell to the floor. Except the tree of course.

"Oh great." I felt Lin scramble around. "All my berries fell all over the place."

I could only make gasping sounds but I'm sure Lin understood my message of deep sorrow for her loss.

"Here." Lin opened my mouth and through in a few berries. "These should help you if we run into any more problems. Chew fast now."

_Ha! Run into problems. We've been doing that ever since we fought that stupid pikachu. What more could go wrong?_

I heard a sound of someone clearing out their throat. I looked at Lin who was looking behind me. In one of my moments of fluid movements, I turned. A rocket revealed himself.

"Hello miss. Can I help you with something? Are you lost?" He said.

"Uh, yeah." Said Lin.

The Rocket took a pokeball from his belt. "Good. Go weedle!"

Light from the pokeball energy briefly blinded me, and then took the form of what appeared to me a caterpie with a huge horn on the top of his head. _Gee. I wonder if I can blame my standing still on the paralyze condition so nobody know that I'm afra_aaaAHHH!" Lin picked me up by my tail and chucked me too the weedle.

"Go eevee!" she said.

I flew through the air storing energy for my future frustration attacks. I did manage to land a perfect hit though. The side of my body ran into the squishy body of the weedle.

"Hey, you can't do that!" said the Rocket. "Only bad guys are allowed to cheat!"

"Hey, I was only trying to put my pokemon in battle." Lin edged out. "It's your fault for attacking me in the dark."

"I would rather walk in the future if you don't mind." I said.

"Would anyone listen to my opinion if I bothered saying it?" said the weedle.

"It doesn't matter, you'll be dead anyways." Said the Rocket. "Poison point."

"Tackle eevee!"

I got myself into position to attack. It was a pain to work through the paralyzes. I realized soon that the paralyzes wasn't my only problem. I couldn't even see my opponent. Even if my body could react quickly, my lack of vision made it impossible to attack. The disgusting bug monster might as well have been invisible. _How can I get it to give itself away?_

The answer came to me in form of sharp object to the side. "I wonder who that could be." I willed my body to the side, hoping my body would respond. Luckily I felt it move according to my wish and felt the weedle meet sweet justice.

"Nice strategy. You must have realized that weedle's can see in the dark," said the Rocket. "So you sacrificed the speed advantage of your eevee to overcome that disadvantage."

"Uh, yeah. Sure." Said Lin.

_Right. It's totally not because I can't move that I'm standing here._

"All right weedle, get away as soon as possible after attacking."

"Just try your best eevee."

"That's not very encouraging!" I said. I had no clue where that thing would come from. _The front? The right? Or maybe right from behi_

"AHH!" I tried to turn around but the spasm over took me and it was useless.

"Good job weedle. He didn't even turn around that time."

"Eevee, keep turning so the weedle can't poke you with his horn in your-"

"Don't say it!"

I turned slowly in a circle. My nerves made me want to bust out running but I couldn't move the right side of my body so I kept spinning. I just had to wait until the weedle spiked me. With in a few seconds it obliged me. Being ready this time, I lunged myself into the opposite direction of where I would go, into the pain. I was met with a satisfactory slam into a soft cushion. The weedle didn't get up.

"Ha! Lin!" I said. "This weedle makes a better pillow than you do."

"Return weedle." The Rocket said and then robbed me of my comfort. "It's just because you cheated."

"I couldn't see. Honest."

"Save it. I as going to save this for another chore but something just became more important. Go kakuna!"

A flash of light showed me what suspiciously looked like a yellow metapod. _Hm, I hope it's not another harden user. I might get bored into losing._

"Don't bother with harden kakuna." Said the Rocket. "Just take it out with poison sting as soon as possible. It can't avoid being poisoned for too much longer."

I felt a large object in front of me and then a sharper and pointier object. "Ow, well, at least I know where you are."

"Just tackle it eevee."

"Yeah." I ran into it and it continued to poke me. Back and forth, over and over. It would get in a few more pokes than I would tackles on account of the paralyze condition. However it seemed like the outcome was still frustrating the Rocket.

"I don't get it. You should be poisoned by now. I don't have time to waste nor the hit points to spend on this. You should be dead by now."

"Maybe you should go back to the basics rocket." Lin said. "Even newbie's know hat you can't be poisoned, paralyzed, put to sleep, or burned if you have one of the previous conditions already. I guess you didn't realized that my eevee as paralyzed."

"It's what?"

"Maybe you should try and improve your night vision rocket. It's kind of a shame really, after you've spent all you time in this forest and all."

"What are you trying to say? How do you know that?"

"Observation, rocket." Lin's voice got calmer, like she was bored. "You see, there is no way you could have gotten this far in the night unless you had previous knowledge of the forest which means you've spent quite some time here. Besides that, weedle's and kakunas are nocturnal pokemon. Only a fanatical bug trainer would own one."

"Oh, is that all?"

"Yeah!" I said. "You tell him Lin. Wait a second. You mean you knew that I couldn't sleep like this?"

"I've got more." Said Lin. "You don't waste time with string shot because you're impatient, wanting to finish this battle quick. You've got something else in your mind. You won't command harden to be used because you don't care whether or not your pokemon faints."

"Oh, you're sooo good." The Rocket said. "How can I hide anything form you?"

"You come from a rich family." Lin said. "You got bored of that life and decided that such trappings were beneath you and would only drag you down. That's why you joined team rocket."

"Uhh… where did you come up with that crap?"

"I'm prepared, that's all." Lin made a growling sound then proceeded. "Part of my job is to read my opponents after all. I prepare the team for what awaits them."

"Ok, this is ridiculous." The Rocket said. "I mean one: no way could you know about my past form what I've done. Two: you're way wrong. Three: prepared? Ha! Let's listen to one of my observations. You have a tired and paralyzed eevee. From that fool in the clearing I can tell that you've been in this forest a long time. The only way you could do that is if you had berries. If you've been fighting all day, then I'm sure you have gotten rid of most of them. You're eevee is too weak to perform too many more tackle attacks. You probably brought so many berries that you didn't bring any paralyze cures. You didn't come prepared so shut up about your half fast observations."

"He's got a point Lin." I said.

"So do I." I felt the kakunas poison pint sting into me. I tried to counter attack but my body decided to take a lunch break.

"You know," I said. "Usually we just listen while they argue." My body came back from break and I managed to tackle my opponent. "Squish banana!"

"That's right Rocket." Lin continued. "I didn't bring any anti-paralyze berries. I made a mistake."

_Gee, really?_ I continued fighting. _Lin, I thought we were beyond the whole argue thing. Weren't we just going to focus on the battle? Then again, it's not like I really need your help at this pint._ The fight was pretty repetitious. It was clear that neither of us were going to be using any other moves.

"You're right to say I wasn't prepared. You're right to say I'm just full of crap. You saw right through me. You are the truly observant one." Lin's voice seemed to weaken as she talked. "You're right to think that I'm just a lying little girl."

"It's a girl?" the kakuna and Rocket whispered.

"I am just human after all. I am entitled to my fair share of mistakes. I am not perfect. But," A quick change shot through Lin's voice. The weakness disappeared and the confidence was so sharp that the Rocket retreated a step. "I am growing. I am learning. I am prepared in my own way. I am distracting you from this fight! Now eevee!"

"Yes ma'm." I preformed my tackle attack on the kakuna, pushing it off balance and knocking it into the floor. Permanently.

"What?" said the Rocket. "Wait, what just happened?"

"I just kicked you're butt. That's what… uh… wow…" My mind seemed to freeze up like it was over loaded. I had an idea or something in my mind but I couldn't quite get it to form. It was almost as if my brain was constipated. Not that I would knew what constipation felt like mind you.

"Keep your head in the game rocket." Lin said. Her voice had sounded dead peaceful but I couldn't believe that it would be after such a close battle. I glanced back at her face. It was a perfect reflection of the voice. "If you had, you would have seen that it was impossible to win with your currant strategy."

"What do you mean? Your eevee was hit a thousand times and paralyzed. It's tired. How did it just win?"

"Let me explain some of the basics rocket." I might have interrupted Lin here to point out that we didn't need to teach the Rocket anything but I was still trying to take a mind laxative. "No one can be ready for everything. Eventually you'll run into a few surprises. I can't prepare my team for those times but I will against as many as I can." Lin looked right at me and said, "Eevee has been fighting metapods all day, he didn't need my help. He was prepared to fight your strategy."

I felt pride flow into me. _Yes, that's right. Now will you pause to tell me what's happening to my head?_

"But why didn't your eevee faint? It was already tired." Said the Rocket.

"He had a decent amount of hit points. Eevee just didn't have that many power points left."

_Hmmm… so there's hp and pp huh? Really, pp? Honestly._

"Let me make a suggestion for next time." Said Lin. "If you ever find yourself in a situation like this again, try hardening first till you opponent runs out of power points. Then use a weak move like poison point to take him down while he destroys himself with struggle."

CRAAACK! Lin's speech was cut short by a horrible cracking sound. Some where near by I heard the sound of feet pounding towards me. "What in-"

"Hey!" Lin shouted. "What are you doing? I haven't finished lecturing you yet! Coward!"

The Rocket had recalled his pokemon and run off. "This is just an effective strategy!"

"Oh yeah?" I wanted to tell Lin not to shout so loud because I could hardly hear the large creature running our way over the weird brain constipation. "Well, just go back and tell that other rocket we beat that you can both come back anytime!" Lin finally looked at the direction of the sound. "Now what's that?"

The sound gladly obliged her by bursting out into our sight. It was a monster that I'd never seen before. It was bigger than me by a few feet but that was probably do to the spiky ears. Its muscles were polished rock that stood out in the rough wood that surrounded us. It was all green I suppose, hard to tell with the light. It kind of meshed into the night and at the same time glowed in the light as some beautiful paradox. Oh yeah, it had a freaking huge horn on its head.

"A nidorino?" Lin said. From Lin's voice I could tell that this wasn't one of those things she prepared me for. "What's that doing way over here?"

The nidorino lowered its head, pointing its horn in my direction. "Not the time to be asking questions Lin!" The nidorino charged.

"Eevee, roll right." I tried but the combination of the brain freeze and the paralysis held me in place. The nidorino charged faster at me and all I could do was watch and then-

The nidorino broke off to my right. As it did I felt myself get sprayed by a cool liquid of some sort. "What? Hey, did you just spit at me?"

I turned around to look at the nidorino. It had gone always behind me and turned to face no. it looked at me. That's it. In dead silence we just stared at each other.

"What just happened?" Lin said.

"You know, your comments lately haven't really helped my confidence in you grow." I said.

The nidorino put down his head and started to paw the ground. "Eevee, he's coming again! Get ready to tackle him!"

"Wow. What a great observer you are. Maybe we should call that rocket back."

The nidorino charged again, even faster this time. I swore that it was the paralyses this time. It definitely wasn't fear that made we stand like a stantler in the headlights. To my surprise, my silent prayers were answered and the monsters passed me. I felt a spraying again.

"Eevee, I'm not sure what it's trying to do but you need to tackle this time."

That surprised me. Lin almost always knew that attack the other monsters were using. I might have complained about that but the mind glue had passed the annoying stage. "AH! I don't know what's going on but this sucks!"

"Eevee?" said Lin.

The nidorino pawed the ground again. I've never been an expert on psycho monster behavior, but it didn't look like my pointy head friend was going to get cold feet this time around.

"Lin, help me!"

"Can it… eevee forget how to tail whip!"

"What?"

The nidorino stopped pawing and lowered its horn right at me. Through the darkness I thought I saw the horn twist to life. A whirling sound filled my already crowded mind.

"Lin! Lin! Help me!"

"Eevee, push tail whip from your mind." Lin's voice came clearly to my mind. It cut through the chaos. "Eevee, you don't know how to tail whip anymore. Forget it."

"How can I do that?"

A scream came form the monster as it started to charge at me. As I watched it coming closer, I threw my trust into Lin's words. Tail whip: a move that I perform by hitting my opponent with my tail to lower their defense. I didn't know that move. I didn't know how. I formed everything I knew or learned about this attack into a little mental ball and-

An idea flushed into my mind. A horn filled my view and a whirl in my ears. No choice but to use what I had. Divinity graced me with movement. I turned tail on my opponent. My feet were positioned underneath my body. I clawed the ground and pushed them out into the air, pulling dirt with them.

When I first felt contact with the monster, I thought I was dead. The wind got knocked out of me and I was thrust to the ground. However my heart leapt when I saw the monster go flying over my head. It landed a few yards away from me.

"Sand attack." Said Lin. "One of the first moves an eevee can learn."

Lin's statement rung a bell. I remembered that the pidgey I had fought ages ago. Somehow I had learned to perform the same attack by using my feet instead of wings to blind my opponent.

The nidorino wasn't close to being done yet. It crawled back to its feet and looked me striate in the eyes. Then it spoke. "Where is my home?"

"Ember!"

I was about to tell Lin that I didn't know that attack but my mind worked faster then my mouth for once. _Wait, that voice sounded too feminine to be Lin's._

From the tree line, a flame crept out and bathed nidorino in its waves. Nidorino screamed and looked to the source. I spotted it too. It came from a small reddish monster that stood on all fours like me. I would have sworn it was an eevee but not all of it fit. Its mouth form which the flame came, was larger then mine and this monster seemed to have just a bit more muscle than fur.

I heard more shouts of ember and I realized that these monsters had surrounded the nidorino, each backing it with their flames. The nidorino looked as though it wanted to escape but no mater where it turned it was met by the flames.

I saw one source of the shouts a woman stepped form the trees wearing blue clothing and a bright piece of metal that reflected moon and fire light in my eyes. Besides her was a larger version of the monsters that were now attacking the nidorino.

"Arcanine!" she said. "Flame thrower!"

Unlike the fire of the smaller monsters which almost seemed gentle, the flames that left this arcanine were anything but soft. A soled stream of bright flame lit up the forest as noon day and nailed the nidorino in the face. If it screamed, I didn't hear it.

A flash of pokeball light briefly accompanied the other new sources of light and seemed to extinguish them. The sudden charge from day to night blinded me but I could still hear the pokeball trying to contain the struggling nidorino. In a few seconds the sound died.

Lin's arms wrapping around me surprised me at first but I found them to be a perfect place to rest. Lin walked over to the police woman and the large monster at her side.

"Hm, you got really lucky kid." The police officer said. "You couldn't have evaded that horn drill attack for ever. Especially against such a high level nidorino. If we hadn't gotten here when we did, nidorino would have taken out your eevee then gored you. I wouldn't have tried to fight this thing on my own."

"I wasn't on my own." Lin's arms gripped me a little tighter. "I had the support of my friend and my experience the entire time."

I couldn't tell if the police woman was impressed at Lin's bravery or astonished at her stupidity. "You've got nerve boy. You took on the Viridian forest at night, defeated every single trainer from both cities about this place without leaving the forest even once. You even fought against a high ranking gyms stolen pokemon. All with a paralyzed eevee."

"Am I in trouble officer?" Lin asked innocently in her gravely voice which made it sound very uninnocent.

"No child, but we will be keeping an eye on your career with great interest."

"Sir!" another police man interrupted. "What are we going to do with these two?"

"Oh the humiliation! Oh the agony of it all!"

I looked over to see the man we had defeated earlier today. At least I knew how they found us now.

"All right boys, lets get back." The group started heading away on a path through the trees. Lin and I followed.

"What a strange pokemon." Lin said.

The only words the nidorino had said stayed in my mind. _Maybe_ I thought. I looked around Viridian forest. The thousands of ancient trees lifted their long branches longingly into the eternal sky. The flowing silence was only broken by the sounds of the group's foot steps as we walked underneath the giant rood of small leaves. Where was my home in such a place as this? _Maybe that monster and I had more in common than I would have thought._

Calmly seeping through the forest leaves, a small bit of pure sun light showed me a different side of the forest I was in. I realized that the night in Viridian forest was ending.

* * *

**Disclaimer:**

**I do not own pokemon. Blue, Green and Professor Oak are all creations of the Japanese. I do not own a red sweatshirt. I do not own my house. I am stealing cable from my neighbor. I took the script of this story from a blind homeless man in San Francisco. I'm told that I have my father's nose and inherited my grandma's temper. The initials on my underwear aren't mine either.**


	3. A Tough Trainer

**Author's Note:**

**Followed: (past) go or come after; move behind in the same direction**

**Fallowed: plowed and left unseeded for a season or more, or a common misspelling for followed that doesn't show up on windows word spell-check**

**I didn't know, did you?**

* * *

**A Tough Trainer**

The door opened and I entered alone. Lin was there too I guess. I stopped and took in the conditions of my battle ground. It was darker in here than it was outside. The lights or the shadows cast by the boulders covered the whole emptiness of the building. Open space above, yet I felt so closed in. I couldn't even see the other end of the room because of the mini mountains.

"Well," Lin said. "It's definitely a rock gym."

"I hope that your plan works." I said. "It looks like you're taking me to all kinds of pain here."

Lin was silent for a bit, and then continued into the Pewter city gym. "Our first."

I walked by her side. "Brock, you were in trouble from the moment we got here."

* * *

"And that's when you got there." Lin said.

"More like when you interrupted." I said.

The policeman kept bobbing his head like a pidgey. He tapped a little red thing in his hand with a little grey thing. He took a little black thing from the table and pressed a button on it. As he looked up at us and smiled, he put the red thing in a black thing and zipped it up. "Thanks kid. That will help us a lot."

"I'm just glad you guys are listening to me now." Lin took a little white shiny thing and gave it to the officer. "I found this the first time I was in Giovanni's gym. Maybe it will help you bring him in. I've got to figure out where that nidorino came from though."

The police man took the little white shiny thing and put it into a transparent yellow thing. "To tell you the truth, we've got to figure out the same thing."

"I've got to learn the name for all these things." I said. "It's starting to get annoying."

"Well, I've got to admit; you may have done the impossible last night." Said the police officer. "I was told by Officer Jenny to tell you not to take it so tough on your pokemon and to give you this." He handed Lin a small piece of paper. "Well thanks for your help again boy." And with a tip of his hat, our gallant hero walked off into the out doors.

I don't know why everyone always thinks that Lin's a guy. She's too short to be a normal boy. Heck, almost too small to be a normal person. I'm surprised more people weren't asking wither or not she was the right age to be a trainer. Maybe it was all those extra clothing that she wears. Head to toe she's all dressed for winter. I guess the thick boots did make her look a little taller. Personally, I think that's why she wears them.

I looked around the PC. From our area in the room, everything was easy to see. Most of the monsters in the lounge I had seen before, pidgeys, ratattas, spearows, and even a few nidos which I had learned were the far less threatening version of what I fought last night.

"Well," Lin said. "That's cool." She was looking at the piece of paper the officer had given her. "This is a ticket to the new museum here in Pewter city. Open 9:00 am to 8:00 pm. We can still make it today. This could be a great learning activity. What do you say?"

I thought it over for a while. I had slept all morning in the PC as I recovered from yesterday. I was happy that Lin hadn't suggested more fighting. At least a museum didn't sound like a battle. _Then again, I've been wrong before._ "Yeah, whatever."

* * *

"Well," I said. "So far so good." Sure, we had only been in the gym for ½ a minute but a truly tough pokemon like me learns to take pleasures in the small things.

"Now what's this?" Lin grunted then moved off to the right. I was glad; it looked a lot safer over there then in that mass of rocks in the middle of the gym. I followed her to a smoothly cut rock. I saw little writings all over it. Lin seemed to find that interesting so she studied it for a while. Then she made a little gargling sound in her throat which is anything but pleasant then chocked out, "He hasn't been through here yet."

Before I could express my indifference, a funny little kid jumped out from behind the rock. I immediately leaped to Lin's defense. I let out an aggressive "Eevee!" and studied my opponent's reaction. He almost looked like Derf minus the ridiculous white lab coat. _Then again,_ I thought, _he looks a bit dorkyer than Derf._ I cheeked to see if he was carrying pokeballs. _Nope. Ok, that makes this easier. "_Hey nerd, do you like to crawl out of pits or are you one of them!"

"Wow! Hey! Sorry if I scarred your eevee." The nerd said completely ignorant that I was not scarred but rather feeling anxious about the up coming battle.

"Eevee," Lin said. "Where are you? He's not a trainer." Although, how she didn't see me selflessly sacrificing myself to save her was beyond me.

"Wow, looks like you need some help kid." The nerd said, fearfully taking a step backwards. "If I make your eevee run Brock will kill him with his looks."

"Well look who thinks he's Mr. Know-it-all." Lin looks at me with admiration as I made our opponent cower with my definite presence. "Do you like to crawl out of pits or are you one of them."

_You tell him Lin!_ I gave a comforting smile of confidence to wipe Linn's doubts away.

"Hey! I was just going to offer to help you. I thought you looked like a tough enough trainer to go to the top." The battle of intimidation, wits and skill had begun!

"Gezz, you'd think that if I was a tough trainer then I wouldn't need anyone's help." The battle that was previously mentioned continued.

"Well, I'd think a tough trainer could handle a little criticism now and then." The battles end neared, the kid's voice and actions became more nervous. He knew that he would lose.

"That would be a humble trainer." Lin gave out a cheer as I prepared to finish him off. "Trust me; I'm in no need of whatever assistance you have to offer."

"Fine then." And with that the kid was banished into the hole from which he came.

"All right eevee," Lin started dancing haply to the entrance of the mountains, confident now that the first battle was ours. "Let's get going."

Feeling the fruits of a job well done, I lead Lin into the mountains. As we entered she looked down at me and with a smile of extreme gratitude said, "Oh! So that's where you were."

* * *

The building was even larger then the gym at Viridian city. It just wasn't very impressive to me. Let's face it, when you've seen one rectangular building you have seen them all. This one did have a cool sign though. The letters were spelled our Pewter City Museum in bones form monsters. I guess that meat I wouldn't find any living monsters inside.

Lin picked me off the ground. "I hope that they let in pokemon."

"Lin. This society is founded on their ability to trap and control monsters. I think that we'll be ok."

And we were. After a brief discussion with the man at the counter, Lin and I stared into the museum. I immediately found that this place was biased against normal sized creatures. All the cool stuff was on ridiculously high tables. Only humans or large monsters could possibly see them. A regular guy like me had to be held in Lin's arms to see.

I don't know wither or not any of this was really helping me be a better fighter, but it was fun. I got to see pictures of funny looking monsters. One was like a squishy little ball and the other, I was pleased to note, was smaller than me.

We were stopped at a statue of a large monster that had large wings but didn't look like any pidgey I'd ever seen.

"Arodactal," Lin read. "Looks like it would have been a rock and flying type. Odd combination."

"Only you would use a word like odd to describe that." I said.

"You see, those types are opposed to each other." Lin explained, failing to notice my not-carrying face. "Rock is a good type. High in defense which makes up for their lack of speed. Strong against flying, ice and fire. Weak against water and fighting. Resistant to fire, bug and normal. That's bad news for you if you ever have to fight one of those."

"Huh? Wait, what about me?"

"Your only attacking move is a normal type attack. It just wouldn't do that good against a rock type defense. They're tough types for any normal pokemon to fight."

"Jezz Lin, why don't I just change into a rock type then?"

Lin ignored me. We stood there for a while. I looked at the rock monster, then back at Lin. "Uh, do you want to look at this junk pole more or are we done?"

"That shouldn't have happened yesterday."

"Huh? Which part? The monster, the rocket, the fact that you totally screwed up?"

"You had problems learning a new technique. That only happens if you know more than four moves."

"Oh, you mean that brain fart."

"Once a pokemon learns four moves it can only learn a new move by forgetting another."

"That's retarded."

"That means at the time you were trying to learn sand attack, you already knew two other moves. But how? Eevee's start out with tackle and tail whip. There are no other moves."

Lin seemed to be taking this was too seriously. She stood pondering over why I was two times cooler then other eevees or something while I had nothing to look at but the rock pile. That's the tough thing about being carried, you know. You really don't have to much control over where you are.

"We'll need to figure that out as soon as possible. A trainer should know all the talents and ability's of their team members. It would be an incredible disadvantage to us if I didn't know." And with that Lin turned and started marching towards the exit. "We'll go figure it out right now. There's a great training spot we passed on the way to Pewter. We've still got a few hours in the day."

"You take you're self way to seriously Lin."

* * *

It felt like a maze. The looming rocks were on all sides. I didn't know what to expect around the corner. To make it worse, we were not alone. It wasn't the same scary as the forest. The forest my have been darker, larger and with more twists and turns then you could imagine but at least it was silent. At lest you knew that nothing was there.

This place was different. Echo's vibrated through the building, curbing around the mountains of rubble and swooped down form the ceiling. I couldn't tell where they were coming form, wither it was at my side, around the next corner or right behind me. There were strange sounds. Roars of monsters I never want to meet. The creaking of what sounded like rocks and the sound of scrapping, like the movement of large heavy objects seemed common here. There were sounds I recognized, human shouts. Although I couldn't make out the words, the emotion was clear. This was a place of fighting, and that was it.

_Man Lin, you're asking a lot from me._

Lin kept moving through, seemingly choosing her way by random chance, like usual. She moved through calmly. I followed directly behind her to guard her rear. Naturally.

I could tell you about how long it took till we got to the next sign of life, but let's just skip to the exciting part.

"This is were you stop!" A boy emerged form a shadow to our left. He gave us a creepy smile and reached for a pokeball on his belt. "You're not ready for Brock."

Lin said nothing she just squared off to him and stared. I recognized my cue.

"I sure hope your plan works Lin."

* * *

The air was already cooling down when we left the museum. I checked the sun. It hadn't started to set quite yet but it was getting there. The shadows seemed to grow quicker here.

"Hmm…" Lin said. I saw that her head was pointed to the fading sun as well. "It's the mountains."

"Huh?"

Lin stayed quite for a second, then said, "I didn't take into account that the mountains would cause this area to darken earlier. The horizon would be higher. I'll have to keep that in mind so I don't make any mistakes."

"Come on Lin. You're going to time the horizon lines now? You cannot be serious."

Lin hummed. At least that's what I thought she was doing. Like I've said, kind of hard to tell with Lin. "Change of plans eevee."

"I've got a name you know."

Lin started off down another path. "I've got another idea. Let's check out the gym."

I took the news calmly.

"Hey!" Lin said. "Stop struggling!"

"NOOO!" I ripped myself from Lin's grasp. "I'm not ready! Too much too fast!"

Lin half dropped, half tossed me. "Well look, ok. Why are you in such a fuss? I only want to go to see what type of gym it is. What types of trainers work there?"

"No! You'll get in a fight. I know that something is bound to happen. You're asking too much."

"OH, I know. You wanted to train really hard didn't you? Good for you."

"No! Not this again."

"Listen, I know you want to work all night outside of town like last night,"

"Right. Sure I would."

"But this will help us more in the long run."

"You mean the running away will help me strengthen my lungs? How lovely."

"We'll just go to see what type of pokemon they use. That way we'll know how to train."

I let that process in my mind a bit. "Does that mean I won't get beat up as much?"

"Come on, it'll be great."

"Well, as long as we won't fight until I'm ready." I started walking down the path Lin had started down. "This is just a quick peek right? No pain?"

"Alright." Lin caught up with me and walked by my side. "We'll go see what's going on at this gym then go and train all day tomorrow. Then we'll come back to the gym and fight."

"Wait. What?"

* * *

"Go geodude!"

The light came and left leaving the second ball shaped monster I've ever faced. This one had arms though. Really, it looked like a large rock with eyes. At least it didn't smell as bad as the last one did.

"Go for it eevee." Lin said.

"Ricochet!" I started towards my opponent slowly. "My name is Ricochet." _Why didn't I come with a name tag?_

"Tackle geodude." I was happy to see that geodude was slower than me. It wobbled towards me, using its hands to push itself, at just about the same speed as my leisurely walk.

_Well Lin, I guess you're right about some things._ No fast thinking needed. No hasty calls. All I had to was follow Lin's plans. When the monster was close enough, I turned tail and kicked up dirt into its face.

"Ah! Sand attack!" the boy didn't sound happy at all. At least it sounded more promising then the reaction from the geodude. When it got closer to me, it picked itself up on its hand and through it's self at me. I let it hit me just for kicks.

"Gezz. I didn't even think that was possible. I mean seriously, how did you ever pick your fat butt off the ground?"

"I'm not fat! I'm just big boned." The geodude said.

"Oh no! It's the denial attack!"

I backed off, keeping an eye on my opponent. Its attack had been expected and it wasn't that painful. _So far so good._

"That was pathetic, considering its weight." Lin said.

"What's that suppose to mean?" the kid said.

"That did squat. Look, I don't even think you bruised him."

"Oh you! Well, tackle him again geodude."

"I have the sinking suspicion that tackle may be the only attack geodude has." I said.

The geodude started pushing itself over the ground and came at me again. Slowly. It was nice having a slow battle for once. There's a lot less drama this way. No surprises, no yelling, _you know, I can learn to enjoy this._

I followed with Lin's plan. I turned my back to the rock type and unleashed my sand attack. I heard a grown from my opponent and then the sound of the monster picking itself up. As fast as I could I sprinted towards my trainer. A thud behind me let me know that I had successfully dodged the attack.

"You're just going to keep using that sand attack till my geodude can't see then tackle me out right?" said the boy.

"Yeah." Said Lin. "You don't leave me much of a choice with one pokemon."

"Ha!" I said. "This is way too easy."

The geodude started the cycle all over again.

* * *

"I can't let you just walk in and spy out the gym." Said the kid.

"Oh come on," Lin said. "I'll only have to ask someone else in town and I'll find out everything I wanted to anyways."

I was still walking by her side, staring up at a large building. It looked even more ominous then the last gym did. Although I wanted to go in and fight everyone, this punk kid kept me from achieving my desire.

"Still," said the kid, "Wouldn't that be cheating?"

"Nah. Leaving the gym without fighting the gym leader to heal all your pokemon is cheating."

"Would Brock just handing us the badge be cheating?" I said. "Because I'd be ok with just taking it and leaving."

"I don't know." The kid said. "I think I heard a gym leader saying once in an interview that going in, knowing what you are facing is cheating, that a true trainer shouldn't have a problem."

"Where did you hear that again?" said Lin.

"On the TV. Once. A long time ago. You didn't see it?"

"… You're totally making that up."

"UH… no."

"Well I just know that a member of the Elite four, when talking about the unspoken rules of pokemon battle, said that the rule only applied to the Elite four themselves."

"Which one?"

"I forgot."

_Unspoken rules huh?_ I thought. _I think your both making this way too complicated. And you're both lying._

"Listen, tough trainers don't need to know what they're facing."

"No, tough trainers don't need weaklings like you guarding their gym."

"Tough trainers don't shout insults to those weaker then them."

"Tough trainers can bat anyone wither they knew the types they were fighting or not!"

_Tough trainers aren't babies like you two are. Heck, for all this talk about tough trainers it's the pokemon that do all the work._

"Tough trainers don't carry around stupid eevees."

"Tough trainers wouldn't let me get to their neck!" I leaped at him but Lin snagged me out of the air and held me to her chest.

"Well, you're not helping me or Brock! If you don't think I'm a worthy opponent, go find someone who is!"

"Fine. I won't let a soul pass through this city until I find one."

Then we all stamped off. Or at least they did. My stomping ability was kind of limited at that pint. Not like I'm making excuses mind you. I would have totally stomped and way good too.

* * *

"Tackle!"

"Duh." I slammed into the geodude and backed off. The geodude could only grope in my general direction, but it was way too slow. "Lin, I'm pretty sure I can handle it from here." The geodude was pretty much blinded by now. That, added to the monsters slow moves made this one of the simplest battles I'd ever had. It was kind of like fighting metapods; just keep hitting till they kick.

"Uh." Said the opposing trainer. "Now this is just boring."

"Yeah." Said Lin. "It's pretty useless now."

"Well, you're still in trouble." He said.

"Nah. I brought berries."

"Oh."

I continued to fight the rock monster. Scenes of my life flushed before my eyes. Unfortunately none of them were more exciting then what was happening right now. _Man this is boring._ I dodged another clumsy attack from my enemy and ventured with a tackle attack. _ Wish something would happen to make this more exciting. Are all of my battles going to be like this?_

"Hey. Question." Lin said.

"What?" said the boy.

"Brock fights with a geodude too right?" she said.

"Yep." He said.

"I'm going to need to learn some new attacks or everyone's going to get bored." I said.

"But watch out." The boy started up again. "Brock also has another powerful rock type."

"I hope it was more powerful than this one." I said. I tackled the geodude one last time. Then it just closed its eyes and rolled to its side. "This was just sad."

"All right, fine." The trainer recalled his monster. "But I warn you. Brock's pokemon is a lot tougher than mine. You shouldn't underestimate it. Especially with a normal pokemon."

"It's just a rock monster." I said. I walked away from the clearing with my trainer. "We've already worked our way around these weaklings."

* * *

After we figured out that Brock was rock type trainer, Lin and I headed back to the to the pokemon center. It had felt like ages since I'd been there last, even if it was just that afternoon.

Night had descended and all the other trainers had come in to sleep. They all were by the fire in the main lounge of the room, all in large chairs and talking one with another. I heard glimpses of Brock, pokemon, trainers and pokeballs. All seemed to be the only things trainers talk about. That's all mine ever did. However she was away from the rest. Lin had gotten herself a chair in the corner and had laid it back in her V position. Her books had already come out of her oversized brown jacket and she scribbled vigorously, though how she managed to keep her grip on the pencil with those stained leather gloves was a mystery to me. The other trainers were all dressed for the season, shorts, t-shirts and other perfectly common human clothing. Lin was different. She was dressed for a colder climate. She wore miss matched colors of sweatpants, gloves, scarf and a really oversized purple beanie which I guess was to hold in all of her tangled black hair. Heck, maybe it's all that winter clothing that keeps Lin away from the fire.

Trainers monster were near by them, forming a closer circle by the fire. I guess they all thought that they were sharing warmth by sitting an equal distance away. Pretty stupid if you ask me. I wondered what they would do if I went through their circle and right near the fire. Not that I needed it with all this fur. None of those other monsters seemed different or something I haven't already seen. None were talking or even playing. They all just sat there next to each other either sleeping or resting on one another. _What a boring group. All monsters and all totally not worth my time._

I walked over to the food box. Its bright shining selection of succulent suppers astonished my soul once again. If only it didn't have that bitter blotch of the boring brown box. It now stood in my way of receiving what I rightfully deserved, a good meal. I have yet to receive one since I left the farm. And I just knew Lin would only buy me that box. Every time I went up to it that was the first thing she went for, with out regard to anything I said. She always said it was for my good but I'd learned to only trust that statement if it came out of the mouth of Arazul.

Arazul, now there was a human that knew how to treat an eevee. I never had to worry about anything with him around. I got food on a schedule, we got stories about Cinnabar, if I needed anything he gave it, and he never ever asked anything from me. Not once.

Lin on the other hand, now there's a ponyta of a different color. She was unpredictable. I couldn't even begin to guess what she would try to pull next. The eating times were as unpredictable as she was. Sometimes it would just be berries, others the brown box. If I was fortunate, I'd get nothing. Yeah for me.

She never told me a story. She never gave me anything I wanted. She never asked anything easy either. She just kept telling me what to do and eat.

Of course now, looking back through all these years I admit that I was more concerned about what I ate more than anything. I've always been a bit touchy about food and went my tongue is not satisfied I tend to get kind of grouchy. I also ignore the better parts of life or qualities of people. But I know that you do too so shove it.

I walked back to Lin, still scribbling fiercely. I was about to jump up when she rocked all four legs of the chair back to the ground. Then she slid out of the chair and dropped right in front of me. The entire movement looked so smooth that I know she did it on purpose but we both got strange looks from the group by the fire. Lin didn't seem to mind. She just motioned me come closer to her.

When I reached her, she put me in her lap then grabbed the book that had fallen off to the side. She held it out in front of us and showed me a picture of a rock. That's not all though. There was lots of scribbling around it. Lin's book came in a few different colors. This one happened to have a red cover. Other than that I couldn't tell why Lin called me over here.

"Rock type." She started. "This type's goanna be tough. Brock will probably have two pokemon too so we'll have to plan this out good if we're going to win."

"You mean you'll have to plan it out. I'm out of here." I jumped off Lin's lap and started to walk away. I got two steps when Lin snagged me by the back of my neck and dropped me on her lap. "Hey! What's the-"

"Pay attention now." Lin's voice made it sound as if she growled at me. I was shocked. _She just handled me like a pup_! Before I could even bite her, she said, "The only moves that you have are tackle and sand attack that we know about. I'm not quite sure what your natural talents are."

"They're going to be in your face if you don't leave me alone!" I hopped off her again only to be yanked by my tail back on I was just a little annoyed. I started to complain when Lin hushed me and told me to focus. These weren't suggestions but direct orders. How dare she order me around like that?

"Focus. Now, rock pokemon are generally high defensively and low speed wise. Chances are that you'll be faster then them. Their special attack and defense aren't anything special but you don't have any special attacks and I doubt they do so, HEY!"

I was jerked back awake by Lin's shout. When I looked into her face I could tell that she was… well, something. I could… nah, forget it. I couldn't even tell if she was really a girl.

"Listen to me. This isn't a game you know, this is a really important battle we're preparing for. Brock's goanna be the toughest trainer we'll have ever fought. I need all of your focus here!"

"Lin, none of this matters to me! It doesn't make any since either!" Wither she was mad or not, I was. "Why can't I just listen to your commands in a fight like usual?"

"I know that maybe this as hard for you," Lin continued to look in my eyes. This was a new one, not the hungry glare I'd seen before. She was focused on me but not it the way I'd ever been looked at before. It was if she was seeing a me. Me me. I didn't know how to explain it back then. Life had a few more things to each me before I could even understand that look.

"Eevee," she continued, "Just trust me."

"Was that an order or were you begging? I can't tell with that poliwag down your throat." _Can I trust her? Haven't I already answered that?_ "All right, I'll try." I wiggled myself back into Lin's lap.

Lin continued right on with out even a thank you. "Like I said, this will be a battle of physical powers and Brock's got the advantage in everything but speed. We're going to have to depend on your sand attack for defense."

"Alright, I get that. The less I get hit the more I can enjoy time without pain."

"Your tackle will have to be tired after all the times it's going to tackle to chip away through Brocks defense. We'll have to make sure every hit counts."

"Good idea. I'm sure everyone's tired of your random berries."

"Brock's gyms going to be rocky terrain, enough for any rock attacks he might have. It will be full of trainers from Mt. Moon so they'll be a bit tougher, with a wider variety of pokemon then we've fought."

"Uhm… where's the solution to those problems?"

Lin didn't respond. "So we've got two problems. One: power point usage. Two: Making sure you can endure attacks. Oh, and one thing, we've got to discover those other two moves you have."

"Yeah, that one I still don't understand. Why can't I use tail whip anymore?"

"Well, I'll have all day tomorrow to figure those out. Some times it's nice to just identify a few general problems then you can just focus on them instead of being overwhelmed by all the other problems you have."

"What are you trying to say? That I've got a lot of problems?"

"Here," Lin bent down and handed me a few berries. "This will get you back into shape in no time."

I munched down on the pits of my food life. "Nasty. I don't get it. What's the difference in leaving the gym and getting healed and eating berries?"

"Don't talk with your mouth open."

"Oh, now you're going to-"Lin snapped my mouth shut. I struggled between violent thoughts and gagging on the berries. _Err… Lin, sometimes you demand a lot, you know?_

* * *

"All right," she said as I finished. "Let's get back to business." She stared to walk again into the maze. I followed close to her side. I figured that the enemy wanted us to be separated. That way I wouldn't be able to leap to Lin's defense.

"You're still light-years away from defeating Brock!"

"Oh jezz." I said as I leapt to Lin's defense. "What the heck are you trying to do? Make me shed every hair I got?"

Lin fearfully glanced at her opponent. "What's that supposed to mean?" She took a step backwards and pushed me out from beneath her legs. "That's got to be the dumbest battle cry ever."

"I'm just trying to say that you've got a lot more training to do before you-"

"Light-years are a measure of distance not time. Thus you battle cry would have meant that I had more distance to cover ten any human can in the life in order to reach the gym leader in this building."

"… maybe it was metaphorical speaking as the road of your life?"

"Still, stupid."

"I thought it was ok sounding." I said.

"Oh, you think that you're so tough!"

Lin just smiled and looked down at me. "I guess there's only one way to see if it's true."

"You mean making me get pounded right?"

The other trainer grabbed a pokeball on his belt. "Oh, yah. I forgot. Go geodude!" the bright light came and the bright light left, the pokemon staged the same.

"Another geodude?" I said. Lin didn't even bother saying anything. "Well, I guess we all know how this is going to end."

* * *

"So if you just used tackle and I said 'attack B', what would you do?"

"Bite your ankle."

"Good. And if I said 'attack A'?

"I bite your other ankle."

"Good. And now if I said 'attack R'?"

"I continue to mock you." _Seriously, if she knows that she can't understand me, why ask me questions._ "I get it already. Attack A is tackle. Attack B is the technique I just used. But I have to say that attack R might be the lamest idea ever. I mean, I doubt I'll ever have to use attack 'run away'."

"Good job, now don't forget that when I give the signal 'go for it' I want you to sand attack." Lin walked into a large grassy area. She started to attack the grass, uprooting everything she got her hands on.

"Good job Lin, you get that grass." I looked over in the direction of Viridian forest. "I'll keep my eye on that. I'll warn you if it try's to send out reinforcements. You can never be to sure with plants." I did a good job keeping watch over the forest. Viridian forest wasn't anything to me now. It was funny knowing that I'd never have to enter that place again. _To think that a bunch of shrubs had me scared._ It's like; once something's behind you it appears silly threat it ever frightened you. _Of course, Lin was more scarred than me._ Then you start justifying your feelings. _I was really just scarred for her._ Then starts the denial. _More of concern then fear._ Distortion. _Really, I don't think I've ever been afraa_aaaah!" Crushing reality always finds you in the end.

Lin pulled my attention back to her. "My tail! Something's got my tail!" yeah, well, or my tail, depending on how you looked at it.

"Eevee, it's just me." Lin said.

"Don't do that! I, uh, might have hurt you!" I saw what Lin had been working on. I faced an old enemy, the veggie eevee. The doll looked back at me with it's none existent face and let a silent roar tear out of it's leafy exterior. "Oh no, not you my nemesis."

"Alright eevee. Let's get practicing. Attack A!"

"Lin, I thought we had a nice talk about this."

"Attack A eevee!"

"I thought I made it clear."

"Uhm, that's tackle."

"I thought this was over."

"…Please?"

"I'm not attacking the green lard!"

"It appears that you're asking too much." I could tell that it wasn't Lin's voice because it didn't make me cringe. I looked in the direction of the city. A boy Lin's age stood there. His eyes pierced through his thin glasses over at Lin. The most distinctive feature would have to be the long white lab coat. It was Derf. "That's not too good of a habit to get in." he said.

"Neither is sneaking up on people, Derf." Said Lin. "Now what do you want."

_This guy again?_ I remembered our last painful experience together. If he as here then that blur lump had to be with him. That monster had beaten me with out my landing a tackle. But not this time. This time I knew just what to do.

"I just thought that I'd check up on your eevee." Derf smiled. "Although it's hard to do that when he's shivering between your legs."

"I'm excited! Jumping with anticipation! Lin, tell'm I'm shaking with furry!"

Lin looked down at me. "Maybe he's cold."

"Hey! Well, I guess that works."

Derf laughed a bit. "Calm down Lin, I didn't come down here to fight. Truly, I just have a sincere interest in your well being." I got a bit warmer.

"Just like last time when you told me to go back to the lab. Then you attacked me." I felt a cold draft.

Derf sighed. "Listen, Lin." There was an awkward pause, like he was going to say something then changed his mind. "I'm sorry." Is what he finally got out. "I didn't mean to say what I did. I was out of line. Please let me make it up to you."

_Wow._ I thought. _The mother of all awkward pauses._

"Listen Derf," Lin broke the starring contest between the two and looked of to the direction of the forest. "Eevee and I are getting along fine. We just came out here to prepare for the gym."

"You're going after Brock?" Derf looked surprised. I had to give it to the guy; our first reactions to what Lin says are usually the same. "I hope that you've at least learned what eevee's other moves are."

"Well, no. I haven't found- wait, how do you know about that?"

"Well that isn't a regular eevee after all." Derf let a smile on his face. "It's a very expensive and special little guy."

"Dang straight I am. It's about time someone recognized that." I said. "Although, you could have used another word for little guy. I was thinking about compact or condensed stud."

Now it was Lin's turn to let a smile on her face. "Really now. What's extraordinary about eevee?"

"This eevee was bought from the best eevee farm in Kanto. They're master breeders. The eevee's that come from there go straight to the champions, the elites. And this one was one of their most recommended."

"So how'd a low weight like Lin get a hold of an expensive, very special compact stud like me?" I asked. Lin makes the same question in other words.

"It was almost a gift to Professor Oak. He called in a favor to get an extra pokemon for the big number of newbies this year. The owner of the farm paid back a few favors and more though."

"So do you know what this eevee can do?" Lin asked.

"Ha! You might as well ask him what I can't do."

"Not exactly. I just know that eevee's from that farm pride themselves in 3 areas of high level breading. One, all eevees come with rare moves that can only be learned through costly TM's or fancy breading techniques. Two, all eevee's have specialized statistics. They are the maximum of what they do, wither fast, strong, or tough. Three, all eevee's have natural talents and powers that match perfectly for a special or certain type of eeveelutions. Those three things make an eevee from that farm better then anywhere else."

"So," Lin said, "I guess that there's more to eevee then I thought. But you don't know the specifics?"

"Nope." Derf said. "The only thing I know is that this eevee was given the number 17-7"

The mood I was in only dampened a smug when I heard my old number. For some reason it made me miss the eevee farm more than anything else. _But think of all the cool stuff I'm going to tell my friends when I get back._

"So, that still leaves two moves to discover." Lin said.

"You know," Derf said glancing over at the long forgotten green eevee to the side of us. "My squirtle and I might be able to help with that."

Lin's smile got a little wider. So did Derf's. Mine disappeared. "Wait! Weren't we just in the middle of praising me? What happened?"

Derf took a pokeball he had concealed in his pocket and tossed it. "Go Squirtle!" the round monster left the bright light behind and looked out at me. "Long time buddy. Let's see if you've gotten stronger."

* * *

"What a bore." I KO'd the rock.

The trainer pulled back the geodude, muttering under his breath.

"Well well," Lin said. "That wasn't so tough now. We could have been done along time ago if we could have skipped that furious battle cry." The other imitated Lin's scratchy voice by greeting his teeth together. "If I want to hear another spiritual thought from you through, I'll call."

I was with Lin. It felt pretty good to be me right now. I hadn't even been touched by this one. Geodudes were just like metapods and al the rest, slow, hard, and weak. This was another monster I could check off on my list of things I need Lin's help on.

I think I was the first to start walking away. But the trainer called out to me, "Get back here, I'm not done yet!" He grabbed another ball off his belt and threw.

Before the light had cleared I made some remark about 'dumb geodudes' but when cleared, a monster of a different from stood before me. Yellow and fat, it looked like the pikachu that got me in Viridian forest. The only real difference that I could see was the claws at the end of its hands.

"Sandshrew."

"Hmmm." Chocked out Lin. "That was unexpected."

"I'm beginning to hate the color yellow." I said.

"Ha!" the enemy began, "I don't usually use this sandshrew here because it's a rock gym. But what Brock doesn't know can't-"

"Sand attack eevee!"

It was a good thing that my instincts had long taken over. Had I not turned tail and run, I wouldn't have had my back turned towards the monster already. It was the perfect position to kick dirt into my enemy's eyes. At first I was worried that I wouldn't hit him, me being so far away from the ugly pikachu, but I managed to make him eat sand.

"Hey, you can't do that! I was still talking!"

"I thought we learned our lesson about long intros." Lin said. "Eevee, take him down quick."

"Scratch sandshrew!"

The yellow monster started to waddle towards me. "You're going to be pushing up daises in a bit eevee!'

"Come on buddy," I said, "Isn't yellow supposed to be the color of friendship."

The sandshrew started waddling faster. Too fast. It reached me in seconds. _Great, this thing waddles as fast as I run._

"Eat my claw fluffy." The sandshrew brought his claw screaming down. It sailed right passed my ear. It was a good thing that I had been bracing for the hit. Had I not leaned back and closed my eyes, that might have hit me. It also put me into position to tackle.

I jumped into the air and smacked the monster up the side of his head. Then followed my earlier strategy turned and ran in the opposite direction. Lin, adapting quickly to the situation, commanded another sand attack. I was all too happy to agree. I stopped and looked back to position myself. The sandshrew was still in the same spot as I left him. _Too easy._

I started to kick up the dirt at the same time that I heard, "Sandshrew, sand attack." I couldn't tell what had happened. I knew what didn't feel the affects of any sand attack though. That was comforting feeling. But when I looked back across the rocky ground, the monster just glared striate at me, as if he too was not affected by a sand attack.

"Hey, you little coward." It said, "Trying to hide?"

"Woops! Yeah, sorry. I forgot that it's the yellow bellies job to be a wuss." The sandshrew didn't like that. When he started hopping up and down, I said, "By the way, I can't but help to see that you haven't been let in on the secret." The monster stopped his little fit and asked me what the secret was. "That you're going to lose this." That didn't seem to help him feel calmer.

"You used sand attack to cancel out my eevee's sand attack?" Lin said.

"Obviously." The kid, for the first time this morning, looked triumphant. "I've already learned your strategy with my first pokemon. You've got no surprises left for me."

_Crap, he's right._ I thought. We had been relying on sand attack to get us all the way to Brock. I couldn't afford to lose my stamina on this pawn.

"Kind of strange huh?" the kid said. "How an unexpected pokemon and an unexpected move can make things more interesting."

"Eevee, we're going to have to change things up a bit." Lin said.

The sandshrew crouched down and looked ready to wobble. "No problem Lin." The monster commenced to wobble. "Just change it fast!"

The sandshrew was close to reaching me. Its trainer didn't even bother to command it to use scratch. By the way the monster wobbled at me with claws extended, I guess it was just the expected attack now. We just had to tackle and scratch things out. Or so I thought.

"Speaking of unexpected moves, eevee! Attack B!" Lin commanded. "Then hit him with tackle."

"Huh!" said the kid.

He wasn't the only one surprised. _But why that move?_ No time to think. The monster reached me and began to slice down. It was going to hurt but I had to trust Lin. I turned my back to the monster and let him beat me. "That's a nasty payback." I dug my back feet into the ground, "But don't forget your change!" I kicked up sand into the shrewd monster. Then I twirled myself around and shot at my opponent. My paws knocked him down but even while I was on top of him, I could tell that this wasn't over.

"Eevee, get back over to me." Lin said. Within no time I was at her side. "Good job eevee. We showed him a thing or two about real fighting. Thanks for trusting in my judgment."

"Yeah well," I shook off the scratch I had received, "I hadn't quite managed to ever reach that spot anyways."

"What?" the kid said, "but my sandshrew would have canceled that out. Why did you use sand attack?

"Because you can't attack and defend against me at the same time loser," Lin said, "I guess even a known move can be unexpected."

"Nice wording!" I said without thinking. _Great, now I fell like a cheerleader._ I remembered that I should be the one getting complemented.

"Hey eevee," Lin looked down at me. "He scratched your back…" she motioned at the now rising sandshrew.

I ran at the monster. "You're right Lin," The monster was aware that I was coming but could only squint in my direction. The air filled with its trainers useless commands and warning. "Sandshrew, where are my manners?" the monster crouched again, flung his claw back, then let it jet out to me. I let it pass by my side as I ran past him. "Let me return the favor!" flashes of my experience with the ekans flashed though my mind. I used my momentum to swing myself around and into position. Then I fallowed through on the attack. I tackled the sand shrew from behind and face planted him into the dust.

"How can this be happening?" the boy was looking pretty sad at this point. "I'm the toughest of Brock's trainers. I've trained so hard, thought it out so much. If I'm not able to beat one pokemon, a normal at that, maybe I'm not so tough after-"

"Sand attack!"

I hesitated only for a second, wondering if she meant the gabber or the now rising sandshrew. I put my bets on the last and kicked up a bit more sand.

"Hey! I was-"the kid said.

"Monologing." Said Lin. "You're really a slow learner you know. I'm amazed really."

I watched the monster draw itself up to full height. It wasn't done yet but it was sure going to be easier.

* * *

"Tail whip!"

"Tackle!"

The only disappointment was the fact that this monster was still faster then me. The rest was all pleasant. The only thing I suffered was a light tape on exchange for a slam to squirtles face. Squirtle fell onto his back.

"Going for the tail whip thing again?" I said. "Old news man."

"Oh yeah?" The squirtle got up and ready to go. "Well, from what that tackle felt like, you haven't gotten as strong as I've gotten tough."

Out trainers ordered the same moves again. "What do you mean tough?" I said, getting myself into position to attack again. "This isn't like last time. This times goanna be a lot tougher." I charged my enemy.

"Ha! You're joking right?" The squirtle kept laughing as he turned to give me another sniff of his rear. I knocked him over the back side of his head for it though, and then took myself over his body and to his trainer's side of the field. The squirtle didn't even fall down this time. He just kept looking right at me and laughing. "That's hurting me just as much as my tail whip is hurting you."

"Your squirtle's defense is pretty strong there." Lin said.

"Yeah, too bad it looks like your eevee's attack hasn't improved enough to keep up." Derf said.

"The worth of a pokemon isn't always found in his personal stats Derf. Check this out. Eevee, sand attack."

"Boy are you in for a surprise tubby." I faced Derf and kicked up a storm of sand into squirtles face.

"Hey!" the monster shouted. "What's the big idea? Is that even legal?"

"I don't know but I'm willing to bet that I couldn't care less."

"Even if eevee's attack is weak," Lin said. _Hey!_ "A pokemon can be tough by the techniques it has."

"Did your trainer just insult you or complement you?" the blue one said.

"Your guess is as good as mine." I grumbled.

"Tackle," Lin explained for the world to hear, "is already an inaccurate attack. You'll find it a lot harder to hit eevee now."

"True," Derf said, "But let me show you how tough squirtle and I have become. Now squirtle!"

"Boy are you in for a surprise tubby!" the squirtle said. Then he opened his mouth and took a deep breath. Before I could say anything about how he stole my line, foam shot out of the monsters mouth and drenched me.

"AHH! Gross!" I screamed. "What the heck was that? Throw up?"

"Bubble!" Lin grunter out like a tauros on steroids, "A special attack that lowers speed."

"And it's 100% accurate. So what were you saying about not being able to hit you?"

"Like the new attack?" the monster gloated.

"Nah, make it look like you've got rabies."

"All right, time to get serious," Lin talking here. Funny, I had thought that we had been serious the whole time. Shows how much I knew about Lin's moods. "Eevee, I want you to do something new. Something you haven't thought of before."

"Uhmm… do you want to get a bit more specific?" I scanned my mind for at few things I could see myself doing. _Jumping up on my opponent and beating him up, running away, hitting him with my tail, yelling at them from a distance, fake like I'm hurt then surprise him, wish he was gone, swear… humm…_ "Hey blubber butt!"

"What did you just say?"

"I'm talking to you water baby! Can you under stand me or is your brain full of suds as well?"

That earned me another bubble bath. _Uh, it's not like this even hurts. It's just kind of annoying._ I remembered Lin's warning about the speed loss. _Oh well, it's been a while since I've taken a shower._

"Eevee," Lin said. "Maybe it's not a verbal attack. Try a physical."

"All right then, hold still squirtle. I'm going to try to summon my inner powers and focus my strength into pure speed allowing me to perform an attack that will propel me into attacking first even if I'm covered in your nasty sludge."

"Eat bubbles jerk!"

"Hey wait!" I turned around and tried to kick back some type of retaliation. I felt the bubbles spread over me as I started kicking stuff into the air. As I was attempting the sand attack I felt an unusually hard object under my paw. I kicked that into the air too.

The monsters scream behind me was accompanied by a shout from his trainer. "Hey, what was that supposed to be? Rock through?"

"I'm pretty sure that eevee's can't learn rock moves." Lin said. "It must have been a fluke."

"You're kidding! Only a master kick could have ever gotten that rock to smash that fat monster in his ugly little head."

"That's it!" the Squirtle said. "Let me wash that mouth out for you."

"Quick eevee," Lin said, "Try a defensive technique!"

"Already on it!" I don't know if that bubble attack was really slowing me down or not. I think I made record time getting out of there. The bubbles hit the ground where I used to be.

"Hey! Did you just run away!" the monster shouted after me. "You can't just run and hide behind my trainer."

"It's an effective technique!" I shouted from behind my wall of Derf.

"Uhm…" Derf said. "Lin, you know that this would get you disqualified in a regular match."

"Yeah, but it's nice to see that eevee's pokemon power works." Once Derf walked away form me, Lin said, "Ok then. Let's try a special attack. Eevee, I want you to reach down into yourself and bring something out."

"I'd rather just hit him with my tail."

"Do it!"

"OK!" I closed my eyes and focused. It was really hard but I managed to push out every thought of food, sleep and Lin out of my mind. I became one in myself. I felt every little muscle in my body, every hair, every bit of undigested food that came from that boring brown box. I began to strain them one by one, trying to get them to do something, anything. I strained even my nose for heaven sake. Then I felt something way deep in there. _But out! I need it out!_

"Way too long." I heard the monster take a deep breath.

_No more time. It's now or never._ I grabbed that 'something' inside and punched it out with all I had.

A squeak and a foul smell foiled my senses. Latter it was accompanied by a choking sound from the squirtle and a laughing sound from his trainer. _I… I can't… no…_ I opened my eyes and looked at Lin. At least she wasn't laughing.

"Well," she said, "That wasn't what I was hoping for but it seems to have worked."

It really had. I noticed that the squirtle was rolling around on its back. From the sounds it made I couldn't tell if it was laughing or choking to death. It wasn't getting up anytime soon. Not that I was in a mood to keep fighting.

I stood there for a while, just completely dazed until Derf got over his laughing fit and chocked out, "Lin, I'm positive that farting isn't an attack. But I'll give this one to you."

"Save your money Derf. I'll defeat you the real way or nothing." Lin said.

"Whatever you say Lin." Derf said. He reached to the still laughing squirtle and recalled it into the pokeball. "I feel like I've failed you. We haven't discovered any of eevee's other moves."

"Maybe not, but you've definitely helped form a strategy. All in all, this was a great success."

"Really? How so?"

"It's a secret."

"Ha! Fine, keep your secret. I've got one of my own." Derf gave a sly smile at Lin and I. "I'll be seeing you some other time, I've got to finish something up here."

If he sparked Lin's interest or not, I didn't know. I did know that I wasn't going to move from that spot until the judgment day.

* * *

"I still don't get it." I said, rolling around the berry in my mouth, taking care not to crush it. Lin had just given it to me. All according to our plan. "I was sure for a second that it must be a rock attack. Think of how easy it would be. I do the exact same thing as sand attack but kick up a rock or two. What would be so hard?"

"Be careful eevee," Lin said. "We'll need that berry. Especially because you can't use tail whip anymore."

She continued to weave through the maze of boulders, stepping with care over larger rocks and other obstacles. I did quite a bit of dodging too. I didn't notice it but the number of rocks had grown. I was too focused on keeping up with Lin and complaining to care.

"Yeah, I don't get that either." I went around a particularly large rock. "You would think that I could still use tail whip. My memory isn't that bad. Seriously, how do you just forget a move?"

I had been choosing to focus on an extremely important subject. Now I realized that Lin was not even listening to me. She quickly shot around rocks, moving fluidly and silently. Now I know that it's what anticipation does to a warrior. It's kind of scary to see. I guess its good I wasn't paying attention.

"What's so hard about tuning myself around and wacking- hey, just slow down a bit!" I leaped over another rock. "Well, anyways, I still think that I should be able to do a tail whip. That's a stupid rule."

Still she ignored me. Lin was entirely consumed on the task at hand. She could tell what was coming. Every step she took looked anticipated every unnecessary sound, action and thought dissipated. Her focus was razor sharp on what was ahead. This left me and my important views of tail whip and such totally ignored. Jerk.

"I don't forget losing tail whip." I thought back on our last trip in Viridian forest. I had lost something tough. I remembered pushing it out. How can I still remember tail whip if I forgot how to use it. "Hmmm… this has got to be some kind of plot hole."

Larger and larger, the rocks became wall, no more pebbles. This wasn't a place of the small. This was a place of mountains, of shouts of anger, shouts of joy and defeat. This is where the toughness of any pokemon is shown. Or it's weakness. I guess it depends on wither you win or not.

It was just around that time that I met Brock. I remember it clearly. Alert and ready, I was dodging out and around huge boulders, mobbing pretty fast to keep up with Lin, when we entered a large space. The walls fell behind us as we entered the arena. There were still large rocks but the more impressive figure was the man standing among them.

This was Brock and you knew it. He wasn't startled by our appearance. He didn't flinch or make a sound. He wasn't scared. He wasn't unconfident. He didn't even budge. I was kind of glad that it was his pokemon and not him I had to fight.

It was quiet for a second. Then Lin said, "My name is Lin-Ka-Ota. I'm here to earn the right to carry the bolder badge."

"My name is Brock." Brock responded, "The gym leader of Pewter city."

_Well this is all very formal. Wait! Should I introduce myself?_ "Uhm, my name's Ricochet. Nice to meet you."

Brock looked down at me. "Is that your only pokemon?" I didn't like the tone of his voice.

"Don't worry Brock. I know what I'm doing. He's tougher then he looks." _Again with the insulting complements._

Brock brought back his gaze to Lin. "The pokemon better not be the only one." He gazed at Lin for a few more seconds. I'm sure that this was a dramatic moment or Lin but for me it was just a bit awkward. He continued. "What dose 'tough' mean to you?"

I think that the question caught Lin off guard. I know I wasn't expecting an exam. _At least we aren't fighting right now._

Lin considered the question, then said, "I've been asked that a lot lately. Or at least thought about it a lot. I know that my eevee can win. He can defeat you if that's what you mean."

"Well, that much is obvious." I said. But that didn't seem to impress Brock.

"But you," Brock said. "Any pokemon in the hands of a tough trainer is powerful. Are you a tough trainer of not."

"She's tough to be with if that's what you mean."

"I've trained my body, mind and heart all my life to be a trainer." Lin said. _And your ego Lin._ "I'm strong enough to go anywhere, no matter the distance, to find my team."

"I was just around the block Lin."

"I'm smart enough to know what attacks to teach my partners. I know every move, technique and pokemon in the world. I'm prepared for every thing you can through at me."

_Big whoop. I've got two moves and everyone here's only rock type. It's not that complicated._

"My will is strong. My desire is to be the best. My emotion and fears are locked away. My focus is right here. So yes Brock, I am a tough trainer!"

Silence. There seemed to be a lot of it lately. _If being dramatic had to do with how little was said, mimes would be the most serious profession in the world._

This time it was Brock's turn to break the silence. "If that's what you think being a tough trainer means," He pulled out a pokeball from his belt and threw it. "Then you'll never defeat me."

* * *

"I'm tired!" Lin carried me in her arms as we walked into the building. "I want to go to sleep, not shopping."

Lin was on one of her obsessive training ideas. Why she wanted to go here was beyond me. I thought it smelt funny but Lin couldn't shut up about the place. She kept whispering about how she 'hoped it was here' and 'I hope I have enough' to get what ever it was. Some how she thought that this thingamajig was more important to our battle with Brock then a good night's sleep was. That's Lin for you, always doing today what could reasonably be done tomorrow.

We walked through long aisles of smelly products in this 'mart'. Aside form all the smells and the boxes of whatnot, there didn't seem to be too much to this place. I caught a glance of a person every once and a while. I'm pretty sure that he was trying to ask if Lin needed help finding anything. Unfortunately Lin walks very fast for those tiny legs of hers so the man just couldn't quite catch up to her. He called out but she ignored him. Although he'd probably have more success if he wasn't shouting "young man" over and over again.

Lin came to an abrupt stop in front of a certain staff. "Here it is! Attack X. and looks like it's the last one."

"Young… man…" the clerk panted out.

Lin looked at him as he struggled to catch his breath. "Sir," she said. "May I help you?"

"…no…" said the clerk.

"Well then, if you need any help I'll be right here." Lin looked back at the shelf.

The clerk stood there for a bit, unsure of what to do. "I… oh… ok… thanks." Then he disappeared.

I studied the object in front of me. It looked suspiciously like a spray bottle to me. I'd never liked spray bottles. They were used back on the farm all the time. If they weren't being used to spray smelly stuff on us after bath time, they were being used as a discipline tool. Every time I didn't do what one of the humans on the farm asked me to, they would spray me on my face. It didn't hurt or anything. It was just kind of humiliating.

"Lin, you already demand a lot of me. Don't use that or I don't know what I'll do. Seriously, you can't ask much more."

"This is attack x." Lin launched into one of her useless explanations. "This will increase your attack. It works by blah blah blah."

I though about Lin's first statement as she rambled. To tell you the truth it sounded like cheating to me. _So this thing is a chemical sustenance that's supposed to make me stronger. Is this some sort of steroid?_ Why would a tough pokemon like me need a drug? I like my attack stat just the way it was, thank you!

"Yes," Lin finished. "This will be perfect. We'll just give you this and a berry and you'll be the toughest pokemon on the field. Wow, this does cost quite a bit though."

"Yeah, some tough guy I am. I need my special stuff to beat an opponent. Since when was toughness measured by the amount of love you have?"

"I'll just take it out of our food budget."

"Unless you want to find out just how tough I am I wouldn't do that."

* * *

"Geodude."

"Well go figure," I said, "Out of all the monsters to find."

I expected a come back, a scowl, something but not the unflinching face that just stared right back at me. I could immediately tell that this rock monster was different form the rest. It may have just been my imagination but it looked bigger then the last two. It also looked more like a rock, cold and uncaring. In other words, it matched its trainer.

"You know the plan eevee." Lin growled.

"Yeah, I know." _I just hope that this works._

"Defense curl." The order came from Bock. The geodude closed its eyes and wrapped its arms around its body. It looked like it was giving itself a big hug to me.

"Hey rock head!" I said turning around. "You might want to pay attention to me instead of yourself." I kicked dirt into the air. "Taste my sand attack!"

I expected what I got from my last two battles, surprised, grunt of stupidity, long speech, hiss of annoyance. I got nothing from trainer not monster. _This is kind of unnerving._ I checked Lin. She started back at Brock with equal spirit. Lin wasn't even watching me; her eyes were focused on Brock as Brock was on her. Lin had always been the confident one, only seconded by me of course. And she looked just as confident as usual. However, this trainer looked very much more confident then the both of us. I was beginning to se why this guy was a gym leader. I also began to wish that I'd paid more attention to Lin's prep talk. I'd never met a trainer like this. I didn't think Lin had either.

"Defense curl," Lin said. "You're going to raise the defense of your geodude so I can't pierce it huh?"

"And you?" Brock said, "Thinking that you can evade my geodude attacks with sand attack? I admit it's a whole different matter now that sand attack isn't being used from a pidgey. If you're expecting it to make up for your eevees attack though, you'd be in the wrong. Geodude, tackle."

"Alright eevee, it's all you from here. Remember the plan." Lin said.

I didn't have time for a snappy comeback. This geodude seemed to be just a bit faster then the others. I had just enough time to leap backwards to dodge the monsters attack, the thing even brushed up against my hair. Once again, no shouts of victory or of frustration. I tried to get something out of this hunk of junk when I tackled him.

"Paper beats rock!" I thumped up against him and bounced off. _Man, this guy's hard as a, err…_ the geodude? Nothing. _Man! Ok, it wasn't my best line but why didn't this guy even respond._

"It's useless." Brock responded. "With my defense curl, you tackle does too little damage. I'll defeat you eventually. Why did you even come here?"

"You think you're the only one that's got surprises? Keep it up eevee!"

_Easy for you to say. _I readied myself for the next attack. Lin's plan was good, really it was. All I had to do was repeat the last play over and over again till I got hit. Then I'd go to Lin's side. Unfortunately that came sooner then I would have hoped.

I didn't get out of the way fast enough. The ball with arms sent me into the air for a few feet. When I landed I cleared the few feet between Lin and I. Lin kneeled by my side.

"All right Brock." Lin said. "Let's tip the scales on my side huh?" Lin took out the spray bottle. Yeah sure, bad memories did surface but power flowed into my body as she sprayed.

"Wow!" I said, "Forget what I said about sprays! This stuffs good shniz!"

"All right eevee, go get him." Lin stood up as I went back to the field. "Hey Brock, look who's got the advantage now." Like I've said, Lin's plans are usually good in every aspect. Through out all of my life I've never seen her too surprised about anything anyone ever through at us. Except at gym battles.

"Rock throw." Was Brocks response.

"Eevee! Run!"

I wasn't quite sure which way to run so I hesitated. That was just long enough to see the monster pick up a rock as big as my head. Then I became aware of just how many rocks Brock had in his gym. That got me running.

I darted as fast as I could towards one side of the arena. What I assume was the rock brushed behind me. _Wow! I hope this doesn't change anything._

"Eevee, that's an accurate attack and far more powerful then tackle." _Oh! Well, crap._ "Run around in spirals till you get close enough to tackle, and then get back as fast as you can."

I thought that last part was unnecessary but I was too busy dodging to shout that out to Lin. Rocks kept flying past me, barely missing. _Wow, that was close. For being such an accurate attack-_

"Geodude, aim where he will be, not where he is." The effectiveness of that advice proven to me very quickly with a rock to my side.

"Eevee, just tackle now!"

"Lin, your rapid changes in plans were starting to freak me out." I turned to the geodude and let him have it. And by let him have it I mean slamming a stale piece of bread into his fifteen inch thick steel door. _Crap! I'm not getting any were!_

"Do it again geodude."

"Eevee get up in his face. Beat on him."

"I'll assume that's tackle." I started to bounce back and forth from the ground to the geodude and back again. All I got back in return was a rock dunked onto my head every once a while. The geodudes attack isn't as impressive when I just struck close to him. He defiantly wasn't hitting me as much as I was hitting him. Really all he was doing was picking up a rock, and dropping it on my head. _Man, this is just tedious work. Nothing new or exciting I need a flash back or something._

"Young trainer." Brock said. "What are you doing now?"

"You want me to revel my strategy to you just like that?" Lin growled back. "That wouldn't be very tough of me."

"You… you really know what you're doing don't you?"

"Of course."

"Yeah, ouch! Freaking ouch! Right ouch!"

"You predicted my defense curl and countered with an attack x. you knew I'd have a more powerful attack and countered with sand attack. But you must have realized that at this rate your eevee won't last long enough to beet my second pokemon."

"And I'm surprised a gym trainer hasn't realized that your boulders two stops from eroding. Eevee, do it now!"

"Yeah! More steroids!" I bit down on the berry. More power filled my body. "Wow, I think this one even tastes good."

"Hump. Berries." Brock said, "Geodude, just keep using rock- oh, wait."

"What's the matter Brock? Tossed all the rocks in reaching distance?" I'm pretty sure Lin was going for a motherly scolding tone here but what came out was the voice of an old witch that was about to throw you into the oven.

I wasn't quite sure how true that was but I was didn't care. The new found attack power rushed to my head making me feel invincible. "If you have any last words monster, it's too late!" I pulverized my opponent again and again.

"Geodude tackle him!" Brock said once he came to.

"Way to late Brock. Eevee, take him down!"

This was our game now. The geodude made random leaps in the air, most of which I dodged, the few that I took didn't seem to do near the damage I did to it. After this it was just quick and brutal. With one last shove, I pushed the geodude on to its back for good. "You should have spoken while you were awake." I declared triumphantly.

"So what do you think now Brock?" Lin said as Brock recalled Lin's monster. "Now I've got a attack loaded eevee out on the field and you've just got one left. Well, am I tough trainer or what?"

"Tough pokemon!" I corrected, "I'm what we should all be focused on."

Brock put the pokeball containing geodude on to his belt and picked another. "In fact…" red light filled the clearing and before I could say 'not again' I realized that this was a little more red light then I was use to. I wish it had just stayed light. When it cleared, not one but many living rocks filled the arena. It coiled around like a huge ekans, as tough as al the trials we've gone through, as strong as one will to win, and as long as it took us to get this far. The monster towered over me, glaring at me like Brock ever did. Almost like Brock's soul personified.

"In fact," Brock said. "No. No I don't."

"Onix!"

Suddenly I didn't feel all that invincible.

"Eevee," Lin cried, "Don't hesitate! Take'm down before he can!"

I became aware of how tired I was. "Lin, I don't think tackle's the most affective choice here!" I guessed I had to rely on my speed being greater then this thing. I ran to the monster, on of my braver moments, then chucked my body weight against it. "Uff… uh, Lin," the monster looked back at me with a cold dead stare. "This may not be my place but we may need to change our strategy."

"Onix," Brock said ever so calmly. "Bide."

The onix… did nothing. For a long time. Seriously.

"Wow, that's anti climatic." I looked back to Lin, "Hey! I guess that…" I trailed off when I saw Lin's face. She was growling of what could only be pure frustration, glaring at the onix.

"Eevee," she said, "Tackle."

"Err… ok." I started to perform my tackle attack. _Ok, this is kind of weird. This rock's not doing anything. So why does it feel like we're losing?_ I tackled and retreated. Still nothing. _Gezz. With what little damage I'm doing, no wonder._

Silence. Then Lin's voice said, "Go!"

"How rude." I was unnerved though. _This is just too weird. What's going on? What am I missing?_ Then, as I tackled my opponent, I thought _huh? Lin hasn't told me what this attack does. That's kind of weird. I wonder why?_

Lin obliged me as I walked away from the monster. "What is this?" she growled. "What is this technique?"

"Wait! You don't know what this guys doing?" that couldn't be right. Lin always knew what they were doing. "What's so different about this one?"

"What are you doing Brock? Is this a legal technique?"

"Yes." Brock said. And that was it.

I had thought Viridian forest's darkness had been scary. This brought a whole new meaning to darkness though. _I don't know what's going on._ And the worst part was I know Lin couldn't see anyway out either. We were both blind.

I hesitated, till Lin cleared her throat. That got me moving. I jumping with excitement to tackle this time. I only walked to the onix, and then jumped into him. _Here we go again I guess._ Wrong. Dead wrong.

"Now."

I tackled, yes. But as I fell back to the ground I saw the onix glow. It lifted its head and I had a half a second to see its huge horn before I was thrust into hell. I had been hit before. I've been bitten. Things like scratches, bruises, headaches and blackouts were almost common place to me now. But now of those were like this. If I could have imagined death this was worse. Not only my body but my soul sank down to the earth. I couldn't fight. I couldn't even get up. I felt as if a mountain was laid on top of me as the thought crossed into my mind, _I lost._

"Bide." Brocks voice explained, "My onix relies on his tough defense to bide his time and take your hits. Then he releases them on your pokemon."

"But how is it that I've never heard of this?" Lin said. "How can this be a legal move?"

"Did you think that I was a gym leader because I have a tough pokemon? Or that I just tried hard? Or that I just had a lot of money to buy products for battling? No. I trained with my onix every waking moment to learn this move. You don't know it because I'm the only on that has it. I invented this technique, and then got it approved by the Elite four."

"That's just impossible."

"I'm just a tough trainer." Brock said. "And you've figured that out to late. I've won."

Had he? I checked my body. It was broken, definitely not in the condition to keep going. I'd lost sense of all direction, time and hope. _I'm beat. I can't do this._

I couldn't see, but I imagine that Brock picked up the pokeball from his belt to recall onix when Lin's ragged voice pierced through my pain. "Get up eevee."

_Get up? You're still expecting me to fight?_

"Don't you-"Brock began till Lin cut him off.

"No! Don't you!" Lin spit at Brock. "I told you I know that I'm doing. Don't think for a second that this is over. Eevee. Get up!"

_Lin, I can't do this. It's impossible._

"Get up now."

"Well, I don't believe it." Brock said.

Neither could I. My vision may have been a little blurry but I saw Brock and his monster looking at me from my right. I was on my feet. Some how I was standing.

"That eevee's defense," Brock said. "It has to be amazing to withstand that attack."

_The best eevee farm in Kanto huh? I guess we found out where my talents lie._

"All right now Brock," Lin said, "I'm taking you down now. Eevee, go for it!"

I ran towards my opponent. Well kind of. To tell you the truth I was kind of tired of running towards my opponent. I'd been dong that a lot lately. This time I decided to gallantly leap towards my foe.

"Bide!" Brock commanded.

Thankfully I vaguely remembered Lin's signal. I'm pretty sure that the rock pile wasn't expecting me to get to him, turn tail and spray sand into his eyes. I knew that this wasn't getting anywhere though. No damage was done. "Lin," I said, "How 'bout we kill it before it pulverizes me!"

"Again eevee."

_I trust her right? Yeah, but she's never demanded this much._ I performed the attack again on the still biding onix. I hoped that it would stay that way long enough for Lin's idea to work out.

"Once more!"

My tail already turned, I started to perform the sand attack. _Hey, what's this? My legs. They feel like dead weights._ I tried but I couldn't budge them. They were sore and done for. Even with all my effort, I could not perform sand attack.

"Looks like that moves out of power points." Brock said. "My turn. Onix, unleash the power."

The onix… did nothing again.

"Wow. Is that the second stage of bide?" Lin smiled, "or is it that there's no power to unleash if eevee did no damage?"

"Interesting. So there's a flaw in my plan. No matter, onix, tackle him."

I've seen tough looking tackles but this was ridiculous. Trust me; you never want to see one of this things throw himself at you. It looks like a mountain tumbling over. I couldn't do anything but just stand there stunned.

"Right!" Lin said.

I snapped out of it and I followed through. The explosion the monster made when it hit was felt throughout the out my body. _Gezz, if that hits me I'm toast._

"Eevee, treat him the same way as the geodudes of before. Take him out!"

_You know, you'd think that something would go without saying._ I started a hit run attack. I couldn't tell if I was getting any were. It looked like the monster as doing more damage to itself by slamming itself into the ground. _Oh man, this isn't going to last forever._

"Do you think that your luck will hold out forever?" Brock aid after the third failed attempt of his onix to grind me into dust. "You're not doing enough damage to think that you can beat me. It will take a normal move forever to chip though a rock defense."

Lin made no response. I couldn't look at her face, seeing that I couldn't take my eye off of the hulk. I just hope she still looked as determined as I though she was. _We've come too far to turn back now._

The onix made another attempt to tackle me, which I dodged. When the onix hit the floor, it that shook the floor then I heard a loud cracking sound. _Maybe he hurt himself._ I couldn't stop to check it out though. I tackled the onix and moved away again.

"Looks like your doing more damage to your gym then to my eevee." Lin said.

I took a quick check of my surrounding. Then I saw what Lin was talking about. In the middle of the arena we were at there was a long dark mark running though it. The floor of the gym had been split open. Brock didn't seem too happy about it.

"Brock," Lin said, "it looks like your defense is slipping away."

"That's enough of this!" Brock shouted.

_Wow, he looks angry. Ha, looks like we're finally getting somewhere._

"Keep it up eevee!"

"Onix, plan b."

"Plan b?" I got closer to my opponent, tacking care to make sure that he monster wasn't going to pick itself up and tackle before I could get there. If he did, I had to make tracks fast.

After getting close enough and seeing that the onix didn't pick itself up, I tackled as I was in the air Lin's warning came. She had been doing that a lot lately. I just wish that she learned a bit faster.

"Eevee! He's using bide!"

I drew off the onix. "Shoot! Now what!" the onix sat there doing nothing. I knew better this time. "Lin, can he still hit me?"

"And if you thought that was cool," Brock said, "then check this out." He pulled out a spray bottle of his own and walked to the onix. "As my onix is biding his time, I'll use this to increase his accuracy!"

_Well, I guess that answers any questions._

"Eevee! Take it down with one of your other moves. I don't want to see you use tackle. It's not enough."

"But-"

"Now!"

The sharpness of Lin's voice got me going. I sprinted towards onix with no idea what to do. _Can't use sand attack! Can't use tail whip. Can't use tackle. What can I use? _I got closer to the onix waiting for me at the end of the arena. It sat there, almost like the blackness at the end of a long tunnel._ What do you expect? What can I do?_ Too close. I closed my eyes and jumped in the air. I tackled.

"Ha! So that's your other move huh?" Brock said. "Now lets up the stacks. Now onix." The onix opened his mouth. I just could see a berry inside them. Then his massive jaws slammed shut. "That berry won't let you survive this next hit. It's over."

"Eevee. Here. Now." Lin said. Through the scratchiness of her voice I could tell that this wasn't good.

_One more time. One last chance._

I got over too Lin. She bent down and looked me in the eyes. No, she was not happy at all.

"Eevee, don't use tackle again. I told you to use one of your other moves so do it."

"Lin, it's impossible. I don't know how."

"Now I want you to go down to that onix and you will nock him out. You will not use tackle. Do what I ask."

If I wasn't in such a desperate situation I may have had something to say to that. She was back to ordering me around. _What are you? Master or trainer?_

"With all the authority as your trainer, DO IT!"

And with that I was sent off. I didn't want to disappoint Lin but I had now idea of that to do. It was impossible. _No Ricochet. Don't think that way._ Tackles the only move I had right then and she didn't' want me to use it. What else did she want? _Do something different. Anything different._ But what could I do. Where was that special technique?

Closer. Closer. Closer. The onix was coming into range. _No time! Think!_ Looming above me now, _now or never._ One second to decide. Voices in my head.

_No jump- kick-sand_

_Do some-what-do_

_Tail whip?_

_Do it?_

_NOW!_

"Fine!" I screamed. I leaped into the air as the onix brought down his head to collide. I twisted in air to perform my tail whip attack. To hit the onix and bring it down somehow. With an attack that did no damage. At least I knew at that split second that I had not let Lin down. I didn't use tackle or sand attack. Then again, I didn't use tail whip either.

_What's this?_ My tail lighted alive. Tingling sensations up every strand of fur, each condensing as if I were cold. I felt my tail get heavier; it now twisted me around with its own momentum, bringing me down on top of the onix. When we contacted, it was not its rock hard defense I felt. Just a bit but just enough, I felt him give way. A cracking sound filled the stadium again. I fell back to he ground.

The monster was behind me so I could only see Lin. Her face was unreadable, looking at the scene behind me. Form the other side of the arena I heard nothing. Then I turned around. The onix was lying there, eyes wide open, with a large crack down the middle of his face. He wasn't moving.

The silence was broken by laughter. I was surprised that it wasn't Lin or I. It was Brock. "Amazing! Ha! That was amazing!" He continued to laugh.

Unsure of what to do, I walked back to Lin. She bent down and scooped me up. She didn't say one word but she didn't need to. She was shacking and holding me tightly to her chest. Lin kept looking over at Brock.

"Not only a critical hit, but a steal move. Steal tail." Brock continued. "Who knew that an eevee could learn that move?"

"Are you going to accept that though?" Lin asked. "As far as I know, steal type moves aren't approved by the Elite four yet."

Brock recalled his onix. Then he reached into his green jacket and pulled out a tiny brownish object. "Yes I will, and I'll tell you why. You took you're only pokemon into a gym where he had the disadvantage. You made him fight through all this alone. You didn't demand his best. You didn't tell him to give it a good try. You ordered perfection. Anything but winning was unacceptable. It wasn't just hard, it was impossible." Brock walked over to Lin. He extended his hand out to her to give her the badge.

Lin shifted me in her arms to accept it. "Are you sure?"

"You deserve that boulder badge. It will help our eevee's defense grow even more. You'll also find it easier to gain respect of the pokemon in your team." Brock was a few steps away, looking into Lin's eyes. "The measure of a tough trainer isn't their pokemon. It's not their money or their knowledge. Not will to win, time spent training, experience or attitude. A tough trainer demands from their team members more then their best, they demand the impossible. Lin-ka-ota, as the gym leader for Pewter town, I declare you worthy of the bolder badge. And yes, you are a tough trainer."

"We did it." I looked at Lin. We both looked at each other.

"Our first." Lin said.

"Yeah, and not our last."

* * *

**With Regards to the readers:**

**Harmattan: a dry, parching land wind, charged with dust on the west coast of Africa, or a word that is correctly spelled but shows up wrong on spell check.**

**You learn something new everyday. Don't say that I never taught you anything.**


	4. Pokemon

**Author's note:**

**Here's a nice little quiz I like to call: 'Who's the freak!' (Because it's still original if you change one word)**

**Here we go:**

**I invented the internet.**

**I love trees.**

**If I were a type of ice cream, I'd be… what's that one with all the nuts again?**

**The answer to our 'Who's that freak!', or WTF for short, after this brief story.**

**

* * *

**

**Pokemon**

_Yuck! Look at it, Freak._ I thought. The monster besides me was unconscious, thankfully. Had he been awake, he might have started a conversation and heaven knows where it would have gone from there.

He was a, well to be fair, I didn't actually know if it was a he or she. It had whiskers that I was sure weren't made of hair. In fact the creature seemed to be made of scales. It didn't even have arms of legs. It was a bag of scales floating in a bowl of water.

_I wonder what attack can drown you in a bowl of water._ I shuddered _I hope the nurses put you out of your ugly life. Hideous, simply hideous._

The room I was in didn't have too many monsters. I saw a spearow with its wing twisted several times which did nothing for its already ridiculous look. A nidoran was drooling all over his pillow by caterpie. I couldn't tell what was wrong with him other than being creepy. _Sorry, I don't think that they can fix that._

A geodude with a crack down the middle of his head just in front of the bug type caught me staring. "Hey buddy," it said, "You've got a problem?"

I figured that a beat up geodude didn't know rock through so I attacked. "Well maybe. You see, I'm split over the issue."

"What did you mean by that?"

"I try not to dwell on my problems. They tend to give me a headache. Got any advice?"

"I think I see what you're trying to do."

"Well don't think too hard. I don't think you can weather another brainstorm."

"That's not funny. This really hurts."

"I thought you didn't mind."

"I'll get better you know."

"I wouldn't count on it. This hospital's not all it's cracked up to be."

Luckily the nurse chose that moment to walk in. I could have gone on but the geodude looked like it was going to jump out of its bed. While I'm sure that I could have taken him, I was also sure that the other monsters would have taken his side. _That would be just like them, teaming up on someone that can't fight back. Why do I have to live in a world of humans, eevees and monsters?_

"Your swelling has gone down." The nurse said. "A normal pokemon battling a rock type, you should be in worse shape."

By the time I decided that it was a compliment, the nurse was already shoving me to the front counter. As always Lin was waiting for me. _Dose she wait there the whole time?_ Not that I was complaining of course. I was afraid that, if she wasn't there, they would stick us in the back with the monsters.

"Here's your eevee madam! I hope that you're satisfied." The nurse said as she put me on the counter.

"Thank you. I'm sure I will," said Lin.

"Have a nice day."

"You too."

"I feel like I was just sold at a pokemart." I said as I jumped into Lin's arms.

Lin started for the door of the PC. "I always wondered what it was like in the back of a pokemon center. Is it fun?"

"Imagine a room full of grumpy monsters. Sound fun to you?" I didn't know why we had these conversations. I knew Lin couldn't understand me. Maybe I just couldn't leave any sentence un-mocked.

Lin's brown jacket had finally lost all of its smell. Or maybe I just got use to it. Although you'd think that I would smell her BO with how she was dressed. Covered from head to toe in clothing, Lin radiated heat. It was kind of nice now that we were headed into the fall. Still, Lin stood out from the other humans. Most were in shorts or t-shirts. The only part of Lin I could see was her face.

We left the PC and headed towards the mountains. I checked out the sun. It was just hovering over the largest of the mountains. _Good, I don't want to go fight anymore today._ Just this morning I had defeated Brock. Trust me, if you had as many bruises as I did you wouldn't want to see another monster either.

"Don't worry. We aren't fighting anymore today." Lin said. "I just want to show you what we're doing tomorrow." She stopped at a fence on the outside of Pewter city. "This is route three. From here on the road gets tougher. There are more diverse pokemon, more trainers, and longer trails."

"Well gee," I said. "Why wait for the morning? Let's go now!"

"Eevee, I need to talk to you about something." Lin's voice sounded somber. And by somber I mean it sounded like sandpaper that had been used too much. "I want you to start thinking of adding a new member to our team."

_A new member?_ "You mean you want to catch a monster and make me work with it?" This was disturbing news. I hadn't even thought of this possibility.

"You see," Lin continued. "A team has six pokemon in it. I'm not saying that I want to force some pokemon on our team. I'm not even saying that we need to do it soon. I just want you to start thinking about what kind of pokemon we need on our team."

That gave me quite a bit to think about. On one paw, not only did I have to deal with Lin's weirdness, I also had to deal with five other monster personalities. And why would Lin need the help of monsters? I wasn't good enough? I hadn't lost a battle in a while now. I could handle anything, even a pokemon ten times my size.

On the other paw though, wouldn't more members mean less beatings? Yeah, I'd have a 1/6 chance of being knocked unconscious. I would probably be seen as number one since I've been here the longest. They'd stay in their pokeballs the whole time too. I may never even have to talk to them.

On the back right paw, why couldn't Lin just get another eevee? I didn't get along with other eevees all the time but better Zip then some weird monster. I can't stand the idea of spending time with some slimy freak. It has to at least have fur like we do.

On the last paw, dealing with the creatures on a regular basis might give me a better reputation with the other eevees back home. I'd get to tell them all about the times I spent sleeping next to a living boulder or ate with a fire breathing lizard. As long as Lin kept me safe there was no down side right?

On my tail…

"Alright, we're here," said Lin.

"What! What's going on?" I said. I looked up at the large building before me. It was a bit smaller than the PC with a blue roof. _A pokemart?_

Lin looked down at me. "You ok?"

"Yeah, sure, it's just that I usually have a flashback or something before the scene changes."

Lin entered the market and I entered into a rollercoaster ride. Lin seemed to avoid any contact with other humans on a regular basis so I shouldn't be surprised that she weaved in and out of isles to avoid the other shoppers. She probably knew were everything was so she practically ran through the store. _Maybe she's just doing this to confuse that poor sales person._

Lin came to a dead stop in front of a shelf sporting brightly colored boxes. _And now for the boring part._ Lin shifted me to her left arm and started shorting through boxes. Maybe I could have paid attention to this startling development. I'm sure that it would have been beneficial but then who would listen in on the people around us?

"Sure it increases performance," said a voice. "But it's only temporary. I need a more permanent solution."

"Carbos!" another voice somewhere behind us said. "Don't you have carbos here? I need more carbos man!"

"All these potions look the same." A girl's voice said. "I want a potion with flowers and heart stickers."

"…seven of them? What, have they formed a pack?" this was an older sounding voice. He sounded important so I focus in on him. "I can't believe that the police would lose control like that."

I located the voice off to my right. The old man was standing outside our isle. He had a briefcase and excessive facial fur. Beside him was a kid in an orange jumpsuit.

"Believe it." said the kid. "My father works with the janitorial serves. He told me that they dug under the fence."

"Well, what are they doing up there?"

"Who knows? I don't know very much about those guys. Maybe they're just having fun."

A sales person interrupted them. "Can I help you gentlemen? I see you're looking at our supply of berry seeds."

"Actually they're having a conversation idiot." I was disappointed. They had just gotten to a good part and this guy just had to butt in. No wonder Lin avoided these people. How could anyone buy anything when someone was trying to sell you something?

Lin made a decision and broke away from the aisle. Or maybe she wanted to move before the sales man got her too. In any case we got to the counter, paid, and we were off.

Pokemon centers are double bladed swords. Yes, it's a nice place to sleep. It's nice, warm, and cozy with comfortable beds. I don't have to sleep near Lin who stays up too late and has night terrors. It gets annoying after a while, trust me. I don't even have to worry about wild monsters creeping up on me while I'm helpless. At the same time, there are tame monsters sleeping in the same room as me. I just had to trust their owners to keep them off of me. They weren't always around to do that though. It was especially bad in the back rooms where the humans would leave me alone with a room full of monsters. Those monsters would be in such bad moods that they would attack you for no reason at all.

Thankfully I didn't have to go back to those rooms tonight. There weren't too many people in the pokemon center either. It was late so most of the monsters were asleep or in their pokeballs. It also helps that Lin always chose to make her home base as far away from the others as possible. I shouldn't have to worry about attack tonight.

Instead of going to a chair, Lin headed off to another corner of the large room. I thought that I saw a glowing box and decided that Lin might feed me. This got me excited for a few seconds till I remembered that the only thing that ever came out of that box was the boring brown box food. Once we got closer I saw, with a mixture of approval and disappointment, that this glowing box had no food in it at all.

"This is a PC." Lin told me.

"No kidding. I've only been in this pokemon center, oh, four times."

"I can use this to store my items and communicate with others."

"You never communicate with other people for starters. And you're saying that this thing is a PC? A PC in a PC? Doesn't that confuse anyone?"

"I need to place a call to Derf," said Lin.

That made me tense up. "Err… now why would we need to do that?"

Lin ignored me and used her free hand to push buttons that made funny noises. When she stopped I could have sworn that the PC farted, then it started to glow different colors. The machine gave a definite buzz and stopped everything. "Hum, he's still not back?" said Lin. "I guess I'll just wire the money over the line anyway. He's the one taking care of my berry garden after all."

The more I heard about how Lin treated her money, which I was certain was the manifestation of human love, the more I was disturbed. This latest was especially disturbing. "No way! You're giving Derf love through the computer so he'll grow your berries? That's just wrong."

The mini PC made a whirl sound and spat out a few berries. Lin put them in one of her many pockets. With a few more sound effects, the glowing box went back to its original color and Lin stepped away.

We finally went to our usually spot in the PC, the one devoid of human life. Lin began to write in one of her books and I took up a bed nearby. The pokemon center slowly faded away as I entered a world of dreams and memories.

* * *

"Stupid jerk." I was crawling through the air conditioning tubes that ran through the eevee farm. It was small but it's not like I was the world's fattest eevee. "Tonight I'll get him for sure."

These tunnels were the only way to get anywhere in the farm. I could get into the kitchen, out into the playground and even the other side of the eevee farm where the other were. The kitchen was where I was headed to tonight. It wasn't just for a midnight snack though. I had to deal with an eevee I just meet.

He was an eevee from the other side of the farm. From what I could figure, the humans kept half of their eevee's away from us. Why? Well, I never gave it that much thought. Humans and eevees were the only distinction I made at that point. I focused more of my energy on one particular eevee.

He didn't give his name. Maybe he didn't have one yet or maybe Arazul never goes over there. I couldn't really give him my name either since Arazul hadn't given me one. Still, I think that we made a lasting impression on each other.

I made the turn that lead me to the kitchen entrance. With a little nudge, I entered. Now came the tricky part. I wanted food but this night had more importance than that. He will be here tonight. I didn't think that anyone knew about the tunnels but me. He had figured it out somehow and used it to get to the kitchen too. Last night he got there before me and waited to scare me. Now, I wasn't scared so much as surprised but I still wanted to even out the score. Tonight I'd get my revenge.

It wasn't long before I heard something. I got ready to move out. This was to be my shining moment, my triumph of awesomeness. Unfortunately it was the beginning of nightmares.

* * *

"Well, I have nothing against flying types. They can't be hit by the most abused move in the world, earthquake. They are diverse. They have a unique set of moves. Definitely in consideration for latter, but not now. We can only get flying normal types. It wouldn't be good at this stage to have that shared weakness."

"OK, Lin," I said, "enough of the analyzing and get with the bossiness." The pidgey moved its wings to perform another gust attack.

"Relax eevee," Lin said. "This pidgey can't do too much to you. It's not a high level and I don't even think this guy is a real trainer anyway."

"I like shorts!" said the pidgey's trainer.

"It's hard to believe this guy is a real human being." Said Lin. "Eevee, let it hit you this time."

Not like I had much of a choice. I had dodged to first one only because I managed to get a sand attack in before the pidgey could attack. _Maybe there is no problem. I mean, if I'm faster than him he must not be that tough._

I calmed down and let the flying attack hit me. If felt like a nice breeze. "Wow you're weak." I told the pidgey. 'If I didn't know any-"

"Shorts!" interrupted the pidgey.

"Err… you know what? I don't know how to respond to that."

"Eevee," Lin said, "it looks like we were right. Your defense has skyrocketed since the last pidgey we fought. Finish this guy off."

I was pleased to find that I should tackle the pidgey before he could get off a gust. It only took one more tackle to finish him off after that.

"But… the shorts?" said the youth as he recalled his monster.

"Come on, eevee." Lin started sown the path. We were surrounded by mountains and hills. It was almost like we were in a valley of some sort. There were grassy patches every once in a while but we mostly stayed on the road. I'm sure that we could have climbed a hill to get away from these trainers but Lin seemed to want to attack every trainer and I just couldn't decide wither the monster battling would be harder than walking all the way up a hill.

We haven't been here too long. We spent most of our time fighting pidgey and rattata trainers so far. Lin would comment on the advantages of the monsters individually and, if they were found worthy, she would continue to critic their monster species and their strategies. Along the way she would give advice to the other trainers, which I don't think they appreciated.

I caught up to Lin. "I don't get it. How does that badge we got increase my defense? It's a piece of rock. You don't even let me touch it. How does it help me?"

Lin and I were still working on that whole eevee to human communication thing. The only thing she ever heard me say was 'eevee'. I think it's totally unfair. Why am I intelligent enough to understand every weird sound that comes out of her scratchy throat but she can't pick upon the various subtleties of 'eevee' that somehow form complete and complex statements. Even monsters understood me.

Still, Lin's response was pretty dang close. "Derf was right. That eevee farm gave you a great defense. I wouldn't say you're a supper eevee or anything but definitely tougher than most. I wonder where else your talents could lie?"

_Well, it's definitely not speed. _I ran through some of the other eevees I knew. Some were obvious like Feral; a definite attack eevee. Still others were a mystery to me. _I wonder what Bullet was? And Zip, well that's obvious._

* * *

"He's a Jerk." I said to one of my friends. "I was minding my own business when that eevee just popped out of nowhere and-"

"Scarred you so bad you wet yourself."

I turned away from my friends to see a familiar face. _Her again?_ "Nuh uh!" was the only thing I could come up with.

She laughed. "Really, scaredy-paws? Are you angrier that he scarred you or that he's just better than you?"

"No way. I'm way better than any eevee on this side of the farm, including you. You'd have to be really stupid o think that this guy stood a chance with me on fair ground."

"Fair ground?" she said. "Fair ground means a fair fight. A fair fight is when both sides lose. I'll never meet someone on fair ground"

I knew she meant it to. I'd been a witness or an accomplice of one or two of her unfair fights. For some reason she seemed to target reputations and do anything in her power to tear them down. Why was a mystery. I just knew that this was one girl you didn't want going against you.

"Maybe I should take your advice." I told her. "What would you do in my place? How should I get back at this guy?"

I saw her eyes twinkle. I guess I asked the right question because she zipped over to me and said, "Oh yes, my young apprentice of nastiness. Listen and learn from the master! What did this other eevee take from you?"

"My piece of mind I guess. Every time I sneak back there I'll be thinking that he's behind every corner."

"Exactly. Now do the same thing to him, just make it worse and at the same time take back what he stole from you. After that you've taken your first steps."

I thought for a bit. "So what you're saying is that I need to make him terrified of ever entering the kitchen's again. No, I need to make it so he will never enter again. That way I'll never have to worry about him. I'll have won completely."

"Good. See? I knew you had it in you."

When she got up to leave, I barely noticed. I was too busy coming up with my plan to destroy that other eevee. When she was a good ways away I remembered her and shouted, "Don't think that this makes us even girl!"

She looked back at me and put her nose in the air. "Not girl, dweeb!" she turned away and sped off as only she could. "Arazul named me Zip!"

* * *

"Oh no, not again!" the pokeball light had left an ekans on the field. "I thought that only bad guys carried these monsters."

"Sand attack eevee!" said Lin. "And continue till I say so."

"Poison point ekans!" said the kid.

I thought I understood what Lin's strategy was when the pins that the ekans spit at me hit. They didn't really hurt that much but I wasn't worried about that. I had been poisoned before but not that long. If I had to go though anything like being paralyzed a whole night again I would freak.

I followed my basic sand attack strategy. It wasn't too hard. I only had to keep moving and sand attacking right after the ekans used his attack. _Wow, this sand attack thing makes everything a lot easier. This guy will be a piece of cake._

"Your ekans isn't that great with his attack." Lin began her critiquing. "I don't think that their species have great defenses either. If I were you I wouldn't rely on poison to take your opponent down. You won't last that long."

"Oh, shut up!" said the kid. "Nobody likes a know-it-all."

Lin continued like she didn't hear him. "Poison moves can be effective but not from poison pokemon. They can't wait it out and they are in danger of earthquake. That almost puts them below any flying type. If only there were any poison types with a high defense that could levitate, like wheezing, around here. If there were, maybe I could consider catching one. Oh, eevee, take him down."

I switched to attack mode. The ekans was blind as a zubat now. It managed to get off a few attacks that landed but luckily I wasn't poisoned. Now the only thing I had to do was pummel it to death. Which I did. "Ha, not even a challenge. My battles are getting way easier."

"Good job eevee." Lin said.

"Yeah," said the kid. "I've got to admit that you guys are pretty good. Have you already beaten Brock?" When Lin nodded he said, "I had to go all the way to cerulean to find a pokemon that could beat him. All others up to that point are ineffective."

"You should concentrate on moves and not actual types," said Lin.

"What's up with giving people advice?" I said. "Don't we want to avoid making people stronger?"

Lin said her goodbye's and we were on the move again. I wish I could have talked with her, or she could have understood me. That would have made the time go faster. Or maybe I could have convinced her to carry me. That would have made my life a little easier. Despite what most humans think, paws aren't that much better than bare feet. Don't get me wrong, I would never want shoes. I've seen little eevee booties and I know they make you look like a sissy.

"So what do you think?" said Lin.

"I think they should make invisible booties," I said, "you know, so they won't- wait, what are you talking about?"

"That was really interesting, you having steal tail."

"Oh, that. What about it? And why am I not using it? It's way stronger than tackle."

"You see, that move isn't approved by the pokemon league. Right now the elite four is trying to decide if we should even accept steel types."

"Careful Lin, you're heading into boring material."

Lin continued to talk about the history of steel types. Let me spare you the conversation. I didn't want to have it in that amount of detail and I doubt you would too. Let me scan over the exciting parts for you. Steel was discovered when magnemites were found to be more than just electric. They kept classifying it as electric though. The first openly steel pokemon used in battle was a steelix, some super powered version of onix. After that I stopped paying attention. My mind got stuck on trying to picture a bigger version of onix with a metal coating. When I caught back up with Lin, she was talking about how two different types were being reviewed right now.

"Gezz, just how many types are there?" I said. "Can't we just classify everything as just monster? Humans, monsters and eevees sound good enough for me."

"So you see we can't use steel tail under normal battle conditions, because it's illegal." Lin said.

"That was kind of a complicated way to answering a simple question."

Well, you know what, since we're already in the brief overview mood, let me just describe what happens next. Some hiker tries to mug us. He whips out a geodude. I think we all know what happens next. Lin makes a few remarks about rock types that sound incredibly offensive and gives advice to a grown man. He tells her to shove it. I kick rock butt because once you've fought Brocks geodude, the monsters don't have too much of a part in your life. I think some smart comments came out of my mouth and poof! Here we are.

"Great, now I have to go all the way back to heal my pokemon or Jenny will have my head," said the hiker.

"Officer Jenny?" said Lin. "Are you part of the police force?

"Nah, just a special team," he said.

"Right, I thought you were too fat be a police officer," I said.

The special forces hiker through back his shoulders and drew back himself up which turned out to be a big change from a tired middle aged man to someone that looked like he could kill me by sitting on me. "They asked for me by name! I'm wanted for my rock pokemon. I get to work on the same team as Brocks gym."

"But rock types?" I'm sure Lin didn't mean to say that like an insult. Out of her mouth though many innocent questions sound like a fierce interrogation.

The hiker slouched a little, a testament to how Lin's voice scares grown men. "Well, I guess it's because they have a resistance to fire."

This seemed to catch Lin's interest. "Does this have anything to do with the break out at the police headquarters?"

I scanned my mind to try to figure out where Lin came across this info. _Wait! Super beard and Capt. Annoying in the Pokemart! Lin was eavesdropping on a privet conversation?_

"You heard about that?" the hiker said. "Yeah, I guess some of their pokemon escaped the other day. Now the police are farming parties to go out and catch them."

"Strange," Lin's understatements were common place. I could picture some super buff monsters lurking on this route just waiting to attack me, and her response is strange. "These can't be fully trained right?"

"Luckily, no, though I doubt that a fully trained growlithe would run away."

_Growlithe._ The super buff monsters in my mind took on a different form. _Well that can't be too bad. They're the good guys right?_

The hiker continued. "Evidently they've been attacking wild pokemon."

"Attacking?" said Lin. "To what end? Why?"

"I don't know. Jenny left it at attacking."

"Wow," I said, "that sounds ominous."

Lin said goodbye to the hiker and continued on. I would have liked to turn back at that point but Lin would never have gone for it. I mean, even if she could understand me she probably wouldn't go for it. If you've been reading this story for the last three chapters you would think the same thing. I only wish that I could have had someone that I could complain to that could understand. Insulting Lin without her knowing was fun for a while but the joy wore off after the first few days. Now I just did it out of habit.

Take what happened next for example. Lin made a small but disturbing gasp and took off into tall grass. Now, I had a list of great one liners but it was on autopilot made so I choose the most basic joke.

"Gee Lin. I don't blame you. If I just sharted into my pants I'd do the same thing." I jogged off into the tall grass after her. "That's why I go in the nude. It's much simpler this way."

I finally came to the area with Lin. I finally saw what had made her gasp. The monster looked like it could have come out of her backside. It was a little white ball with huge eyes. I would have laughed if I wasn't certain that I had just met my doom.

"Jigglypuff!"

"Wow! These guys are super rare. Eevee, get ready to fight."

The jigglypuff responded by suddenly growing five times its size.

"Lin, you may want to rethink this," I said. The jigglypuff seemed to agree.

"Don't worry," Lin said. "He's just puffing himself full of air to make himself look tougher then he really is. It's kind of like what you do with your fur."

"Thanks Lin. You just blew my secret weapon."

"Now careful eevee, jigglypuffs are famous for their sing attack. If it sings, try not to be lured into relaxing. Just ignore it."

_You know Lin._ I thought as Jigglypuff opened his mouth. _You would be a greater strategist if you didn't keep couching the opponent._

The jigglypuff spoke. I tried not to pay attention and ran to the jigglypuff. I did well with the whole not paying attention part up till the words 'furry trash' broke through. I came to a dead stop and started listening.

"That's right you back stabbing piece of stale crap you better stop; you backward monster."

"That's not relaxing. Hey! He's insulting me, not singing!"

"Wow. I can see that intelligence is as abundant in you as an ounce of spine is, you yellow belly son of a growlithe. You just figured that out? A slowbro with half a brain would have figured that out faster."

Never before had I met such a barrage of verbal abuse. I myself had been the best curser at the eevee farm but now I was in the presence of a master. After I regained my composure I said, "That's funny coming from a-"

"You have the mental capacity to speak!" said the jigglypuff. "I may have underestimated you. Watch as I cower in fear."

_Wow. I'll have to use that one later._ "Well, I admit that I can't beat you verbally so I'll just beat you physically."

I started to run to the monster but he was on me before I was on him. His little stubby arms reached out and repeatedly slapped and backhanded me. It didn't hurt that bad but it was humiliating. I tried to tackle him then but he just tucked in his arms and legs and rolled off to the left. My tackle was off by miles.

"Eevee, your defense is too high for him to do too much damage but he will be faster than you. Try to keep up." Lin said.

"Hey! You're human is screwed up too!" said the Jigglypuff as he rolled in every direction. "He's a wuss isn't he? I bet he got kicked in the head to many times when he was a baby right? It's as plain as the fur on your butt."

"That's it!" I said. "You can insult my abilities. You can insult my speed. You can even insult my intelligence. But nobody calls my fur 'plain'! You're going down!"

The jigglypuff finally seemed to hesitate just long enough for me to tackle attack. Lin was right. When I attacked the jigglypuff it felt like I just bounced on a trampoline. I went shooting off in another direction and landed on my face.

Before I knew it, the puff bag was on me again. After he slapped my ego around he backed off and said, "Ha! You're not as weak as I thought."

"Is that a complement?" I said getting back up.

"Yeah, I thought you were as weak as you were stupid but it turns out your way stupider than that."

I had reached my breaking point. _I don't care if I can't use this move in a real fight. I doubt he knows that._ I cleared the distance between us in a few leaps. I twisted and tensed my tail. Like magic, the fur felt heavy and began to fall towards the monster. I hit nothing but ground.

When I located the jigglypuff I saw that the attack still had an effect on him.

"What was that?" the jigglypuff seemed a little deflated, literally. And I think that he was shaking just a bit.

I wouldn't let him get back on his feet. I got to him again and tackled. I thought it was kind of funny. Usually I'm the one teasing and the monsters the one with all the surprises. It felt good being on the other side. _No wonder monsters have so much fun doing this._

"Eevee," Lin said. "I know that it's not a trainer battle but don't use that move. I can't have you relying on it."

_Way to steal my thunder Lin._ I got ready to take the jigglypuff on again. _Now that I had him psyched out it should be easy to win._

I jigglypuff swelled back up. I ran to cut him off before he could gain back the physiological advantage. Once the jigglypuff reached critical mass, he opened his mouth and started to sing.

Ok, I don't know what humans hear when a jigglypuff sings. I imagine a high pitch voice saying jigglypuff over and over. How that makes them sleep is a mystery to me. To my ears it was very different. Forget lyrics, nothing was said. This jigglypuff sang with pure acoustics. I heard an aura of soft melody, a babbling of a tiny brook, chuckling of a gentle mother.

"Beautiful." I said. I felt my whole body relax. The tension of the past worked its way out of my system. I was at peace. And then… nothing. Really, nothing happened. The jigglypuff stopped singing and I just looked at him.

I blinked a few times to shake off the drowsiness. Then I laughed, "Ha! Was that all?"

I heard a crashing sound in the bushes behind me. When I turned around I didn't see Lin. It took me a while to figure it out but I realized that Lin had fallen asleep in the bushes.

"Hey! You can't do that! You still have to couch me!" _typical trainer. Can help everyone else but suck at following their own advice._

"What's the matter, dirty paws," the jigglypuff said, "can't protect yourself? You think the human's your mommy? I see the resemblance."

"Forget the human!" I took off to the monster. "She was the one holding me back!" I used steel tail. You ever watch baseball? Picture a major league player use a steel bat on a bouncy ball. You'll get the picture.

"Ahhhhhh…" the jigglypuff hadn't fainted but he wasn't fighting me anymore.

"Well," I sighed. "That's that I guess." I trotted my way back to Lin. "Ok, get up sleeping beautiful, who's also commonly mistaken for a dude." I patted Lin on the face. Nothing. I waved my tail under her noise. Nothing. I thought about licking her on the face but figured that it could be horribly misconstrued by a passerby and decided to try shouting instead. Still nothing.

"I don't get it. Why did Lin fall asleep? I wonder if this happens to all the new trainers."

I figured that there was nothing I could do for the moment except wait. I hate waiting though. I decided to skip out on just standing there and instead I'd try a little exploring. _I've got to see how far I hit that jigglypuff._

I trotted off into the direction I launched the monster. I could easily picture him being a few miles into the mountains. _Maybe he hit a tree. That would be even better._

I don't know how long I walked. I never was great at knowing the exact hour. I could read the sun though. When I looked up I noticed a definite change in the sun's place. It must have been around noon when I left and now it was mid-afternoon.

"Time to head back."

It turns out that time wasn't the only thing I had trouble keeping track of. I also have a terrible since of direction. I choose to blame it on the farm. You don't really need to feel where you are going if you can see everything there is to see from any given spot on the playground. Whatever the reason, I found myself to be completely lost.

"Not again! Why does this happen to me?"

_

* * *

_

_Now I've got you._

_I finished spreading the butter on the floor. This will be the last time you come back here._

The plan was perfect. I did exactly what Zip said. This plan would humiliate, punish, and stop that other eevee from ever trying to claim my food. At first I'd been stumped but the idea popped into my head after I thought about how much trouble I'd be in if I got caught trying to pull off a prank in a place I wasn't supposed to be. Then I realized that if I would get in trouble from even being there, then the other eevee would be in more trouble if the humans caught him in there eating the food; Even more so if he trashed the place. Or, in reality, if I trashed the place and made it look like he did.

Food was scattered all over the floor. Potts and pans were positioned perfectly to come crashing down. The butter was coating the tile. Besides the faint light of a box in the corner of the room, it was dark. _Perfect._

I got in position on the counter with the pots and pans. _Any minute now, he'll come through one of the vents. He'll lose all traction on this floor then I'll knock off all these pans. Then into the vents I go._ I suppressed an evil laugh. _Then he'll be trapped in here with no one to blame and bam! The humans will rip him a new one._

I'm sure that it only waited a few minutes but it felt like forever. Time slows down when you're waiting for your devious plans to succeed. Maybe that's why all the bad guys are so impatient and cranky.

I heard something in the kitchen. It was a creaking sound, the sound of a moving vent. He had come. Now all I had to do was wait, wait till he realized what was going on.

I didn't have to wait too long. "What's this stuff?" his voice came. "What happened to this place?"

_Now!_ I ran to a vent on the floor, knocking off all the pots and pans on my way. The sudden loud noise was defining. I'm sure that the other eevee would be stunned. He had to be for my plan to work. I needed him to stay put till the humans came.

I leapt off the counter and slid into safety. I resisted the temptation to stay and witness the result of my work. Instead I started working my way back to my side of the farm. I thought I heard some human shouts behind me. _Hopefully that's a sign that everything worked. I think I've done it._

It was dark in the vents. I couldn't see anything unless it was right in my face. Thankfully it was tight too so I could feel my way around. I had memorized what turns I had to take but I needed to feel the openings. It would be easy to get lost here, but I wasn't afraid of the dark.

I turned down another path and stopped cold when I heard something at the end of it. There was a clicking sound echoing through it. Something was coming. Something with hard paws.

"Hello!" I said. "Hey, is that you Zip? Did you follow me?"

The skittering stopped but I could still hear the faint echo.

"Is that you?" I said. "You're that eevee I just tricked right?"

Even the echoes faded now. It was silent. I didn't know if the sound was trying to hide or sneaking up on me. I realized that I didn't even know where the sound was coming form. The echo made it seem as if it were coming from everywhere.

I heard another sound. I couldn't make out the words but it surrounded me. I heard it a second time, louder, clearer: "Food."

It dawned on me that this thing was no eevee. It didn't sound right. It couldn't be a human either. _It's something else. What is it?_

"I want food." It said more forcefully.

_Food?_ I thought. _Food? Oh, gezz! It's calling me food!_ I had to get out of here. The problem was I didn't know where to go. This thing was stalking me. I couldn't see where it was, I couldn't even hear it right. It could attack from anywhere.

I became acutely aware of how small it was in the vents. The walls seemed to lean in on me, as if they were eager to watch me be eaten alive. _Dark. Too dark. I need light._

I didn't crawl though anymore. I flat out ran. Echoes of the creatures hunger started whipping past me. The clicking sound had started too. It was on the move. And it was getting closer.

I was in such a rush that it nearly screamed when I felt the wall give way at me side. A second after I passed it I remembered that I had just passed my last turn. I stopped and franticly tried to turn around in the cramped space. I couldn't make it. I was stuck. "Too small." I whispered "It's too small in here. I can't move. Too small."

I kept struggling for a while; then collapsed in fatigue. I never was a great runner. Add on the fact that it had stayed up late for the last few nights exploring the vents and you've got one physically unfit eevee.

As I caught my breath in the dark, I noticed that it couldn't hear the clicking sound anymore or the shout for food. I calmed down a little. When I relaxed I found it easier to work my way around. After I got completely turned around, I looked down the tunnel. I could see nothing, not even the walls or the opening.

I took a deep breath and slowly started feeling my way in the dark. Every step it took made me think, _is this the last step I'll take? Is it this one?_ I jumped when I felt the wall to my side vanish. _This is it!_

"FOOD!" it was right there! The voice was right in front of me!

I screamed loader then I thought I could ever scream and bolted down the tunnel to my side. I had to get to the exit before it got me. I could see the light, faint at first and now larger until-

Boom! I crashed out of the vent and back into my home. I turned my head quickly to see if the blood thirsty thing was behind me. At first I only saw the red eyes glaring at me. In the little light that got through the vent I could just make out a narrow purple face, a swirly long tail and ridiculously long teeth which seemed to glow. "Rattata." It said. In a flash it was gone.

"Hey! What's the big idea?" I looked back into the room. It was the room where all the eevees slept. However, now they were all awake and looking angry.

"Why all the noise?" one said. "Why did you wake us up?"

"S-something in the vents." I said.

"Oh really?" another eevee said. "And what was it?"

"It was a monster."

* * *

"So… hungry." Lin hadn't even feed me lunch. Now it was getting close to dinner time and I still couldn't find anyone to feed me. _Where are all the humans? I swear that they show up and attack when I don't want them to. Now that I want them here they don't want anything to do with me._

I had found the route again and thought that if I walked on it long enough that I would find a human that could help me. I also wanted to avoid any possible monster contact. So far only the last part of the plan was working. It was time to switch strategies.

I headed into the hills and grassy areas. "I'll just find something to eat and drink and I'll head back to the route. Then I'll just sit there until Lin comes to find me."

I started to wander through the wilderness. I had never forged or hunted my own food. I really don't know what I expected to find. I just thought that if I looked hard enough that I would find something edible. Like maybe a box of berries, a chansey nest or a plate of human food.

Now, it took me a while to figure out that berries come from busses and not boxes. It didn't help when I found such a box just sitting out in the open. It was pretty big. When I propped myself up to see what was inside I could tell that it was larger than an eevee size helping.

"Sweet! Who said that eevee's weren't great predators?"

I moved over to the box. Just as I reached it I heard rustlings in the bushes in front of me. I froze and watched the bush. Without further introduction, the monster popped out.

"You?" I said.

"No way," said the jigglypuff.

We just looked at each other for a bit. Then the jigglypuff said, "So, was this box a trap or something? Didn't get enough last time?"

"Excuse me?" I said. "You're talking like you won our last fight. And how do I know you didn't set up this to trap me?"

"Oh yeah, I just had this box of food lying around and thought, 'hey, I'll leave it out here in the open. That way I'll be sure to attract a lot of unwanted attention."

"Well Mr. smartly… ball, where did this box come from?"

"It must have fallen off a truck or some human dropped it."

"Humph! A likely explanation."

"Um… yeah," the jigglypuff said. "Wait, what does that even mean?"

"It's a simple deduction," I said.

"… just forget it." the jigglypuff started looking in different directions. "Listen, we need to get out of here. A little pidgey told me that the pack's around here."

"Ah, yes, now it makes since. You had your little pidgey friend track me down so you could have your revenge. I should have known you monsters all work together."

"What? No. Look, from one pokemon to another we can't stay here too much longer."

"Don't put me in the same category as you! I'm an eevee. That means that I'm way better than you."

The jigglypuff looked like he was about to say something, probably to admit that I was right. I wouldn't blame him. I had set down a lot of evidence in my favor. Whatever it really was I'll never know because at that moment we heard something charging towards us.

The jigglypuff acted fast. He got to the box and inhaled all the berries and then spit them around the box. He rocked the box over himself and me. He hushed me and sat still. I followed his lead.

Whatever was charging us reached our area. After I stopped I heard more charging sounds closing in. once the other sounds caught up, they all started to talk at once. I would have been tempted to peek outside to see what was out there but sometimes the bravest thing you can do is nothing.

_The jigglypuff said that they were a pack. I count seven voices. It must be that pack of growlithes the humans were talking about._

An authoritative voice shouted above the noise. "Shut up!" all the others got quiet. "You. What were you thinking? Did I tell you to charge?"

The growlithe in question sounded nervous. "I thought that I heard him so I-"

"That wasn't my question," the leader said. "You only charge when I say you charge. If you don't follow my orders then you aren't part of the pack. You know what happens to pokemon that aren't part of the pack."

The growlithe swallowed so hard that I could hear it over my own fear. "Yes sir. It won't happen again sir."

"It better not," the leader said. "Now, does anyone know where he went?"

"Negative sir," one of the monsters said. "He was here, probably eating the berries in that box, when he heard us coming. He left in such a hurry that he spilt all his food and tipped over the box."

"Stupid monster," the leader said. "Just you wait. I'll get my jaw around you soon enough."

"What now sir?"

"We stick with the original plan. We sneak up to the jigglypuff and kill him before he can sing a note. I will not be humiliated again. Let's move out."

For the next few moments I listened to the sounds of the growlithes get softer until they were gone. Then I bolted out of the box. I turned to the jigglypuff. "Wow, you've got a knack for making strong enemies. Don't tell me that you insulted a full pack of psycho growlithes."

The jigglypuff pushed the box off him. "They had it coming. If you want to blame anyone blame the humans. They're the real monsters here."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

The jigglypuff started to inspect the berries on the floor. When he found one that wasn't crushed he ate it without even asking me if I wanted it. I started to find my own berries.

"The humans trained these growlithes. From what I hear growlithe in the wild don't act this way. If prey escapes them they just find something else to hunt. It's human interference that made those growlithes hold a grudge."

_Huh. I never thought about it that way. How many monsters are even meaner because that's how humans taught them to be?_

Once all the edible berries were gone I remembered that it was supposed to be fighting with this monster. "So what's your angle? Why did you protect me back there?"

The jigglypuff shrugged as much as a jigglypuff could. "Just lending a helping hand. You know, from one pokemon to another."

I laughed, "I wouldn't put myself in the same category as you. I'm an eevee; it's a whole different level."

The jigglypuff gave me a strange look. "Well, I know you're an eevee. I'm… no, never mind. Let's get out of here."

I weighed my options. _Follow the monster into the heart of its territory or stay lost._ After decided that the jigglypuff couldn't be carnivorous, I followed a safe distance behind him.

After walking a bit I said, "Hey, we've only got a few hours till sun down. You can tell time right?"

"Um, duh!"

"So, you hungry still or what?"

"No, I'm fine. Aren't you?"

"Of course I'm fine. I just wanted to know if you were."

"Good. I can last on those berries for a week if I had to."

"So could I. I'm just glad that your hunger won't get in my way."

"Me too."

"Great." I notice that in the exchange of words that I had gotten pretty close to the jigglypuff. I backed up to a more favorable distance.

"So where are we going anyway?" I said.

"There's a little cave of dead trees out here." The jigglypuff's waddling was very purposeful. "I live there some nights."

"Kind of like an apartment then."

The jigglypuff was in front of me and facing away so I couldn't see his face. He did, however make a sound that usually accompanies eye rolling. Then he said, "Oh, yeah. Just like that. The only thing that's different is that some stuff is invisible."

"You're making fun of me aren't you?"

"No really! The chairs are invisible. The fireplace is invisible. The beds are invisible. All the food is invisible too!"

I put this last phrase into my sarcasm translator. _Let's see. If I were being sarcastic, I would say something's invisible if it really didn't exist. If that is true… oh no! There are no chairs or beds of fire or, well, considering what garbage comes out of the glowing box I can't say I'll miss it._

When I didn't respond to the jigglypuffs comment, he just kept walking and I followed. After what seemed an eternity, we arrived at the 'cave'. It was really just a bunch of dead trees stacked on top of each other. It was done with no order, just like someone dumped them here. Maybe they had all just fallen in the same spot. It looked small and dark.

"Are you sure this is safe?" I asked. "It doesn't look up to code."

"Hey, if you look up my data in a pokedex it won't say the construction pokemon. You can sleep outside it you want."

It was already getting dark outside. I took a deep breath. "I was just wondering why it had to be so small that's all."

"That keeps the big predators out. No growlithes coming inside."

"Yeah, I knew that. Maybe you could install a sun roof or something."

The jigglypuff gave me a funny look.

"Yeah, you know," I laughed nervously, "I'm just saying it might be adding to the resale value. You know, like bonus. You know, yeah."

"Hey buddy," the jigglypuff said, "are you-"

"Yeah, I think I'll just stay outside. That place looks hot and I haven't shed for a while so I'm pretty well insulated and, yeah. Just a better idea, you know."

The jigglypuff was quiet for a second, and then said, "I have something really cool inside. I really want to show you. Come on." He started towards the cave.

I hesitated. "What is it?"

The jigglypuff looked back. "You've just got to see it. I can't describe it."

"All right." I made my way to the cave. "I'll just come in for a little bit."

I followed the jigglypuff into the cave. There was an empty space in the middle of all these fallen trees. When I reached it the jigglypuff started to dig up a few twigs. He cleared them all out and showed me what was underneath.

"What's this?"

It looked like a sweater or a jacket. The only thing that really looked unique about it was that it was made of all metal. It might have gleamed had more light been let through. It must have been about my size too. _What's something like this doing buried out here?_

"Cool huh?" said the jigglypuff. "Sometimes you have to look at the things humans make and be impressed. They do make some rad junk."

I laughed, "You have no idea. They make the randomest things. You wouldn't believe what they come up with."

"Tell me," said the jigglypuff.

"Well, they keep love in a little metal heart. Then they go around giving away love for what they want."

"Bizarre? How can they put love in a container? What happens if it breaks?"

"I don't know if it ever does. The humans protect it and cherish that love more than anything else in the world."

The jigglypuffs shadow shook it's self in disbelief. "I'm glad my love can't be stored away. If it was I know I'd just lose it all. What else do they do? What do they really do with a pokemon they catch? What did they do with you?"

I thought for a second. "You know, I don't really know what they do with the wild ones. I don't know what eevees do in the wild either. I've been around humans all my life."

"Really? Why?"

"I never really thought about it. I just thought all eevees in the world lived on the farm"

"Farm? What's that?"

"It's where I was living before I met Lin. It's the best place in the world. They give you great food on a regular schedule. They always make sure it's not too hot or not too cold. They give you a bed. The farm had a bunch of eevees to play with too. Really awesome."

"Wow." The jigglypuff was quiet for a while. "All that huh?"

"Yeah, well," I felt uncomfortable for some reason. "I'm sure that you've lived in some cool places since you were never tied down. What do you and your friends do around here? Do you meet up for Saturday night karaoke?"

"I haven't seen another jigglypuff in months."

I couldn't say anything. _Isn't this where jigglypuffs live? How could you be so alone out here?_

"We're just not that common." The jigglypuff continued. "It's not that we have a lot of predators or humans after us. There just aren't too many, that all."

"Well," I desperately tried to think of something to say, "at least your food isn't locked behind a box or being held by the humans. I bet you get to eat whenever you want right?"

"Yeah, if I can find food. Usually I can find a few berries before the pidgeys and rattatas can."

I had a feeling that 'few' in the jigglypuffs vocabulary meant something different than my definition. "Well…" I wanted to say something but the same feeling that pushed me to talk was also keeping me form coming up with anything to say.

"It's not all that bad really," the jigglypuff said. "If I ever get desperate I can always let myself evolve and move up to the areas up north. It might be more dangerous up there but at least that's where my parents are."

"Parents?"

"Yeah, your mom and dad, the two people that love you more than anyone else. You could never put their love in a container, even if they're human parents."

_Parents? The two people that love you the most? That sounds important. Why hasn't anyone ever told me about this?_

"Well, it's getting pretty dark now," said the jigglypuff. He was right. I hadn't noticed it but the sun had set. I couldn't even see anymore. "I'm going to sleep. See you in the morning."

_Funny._ I thought as I closed my eyes. _In the dark I can't tell if I'm inside or outside. Or if I'm with monsters or with friends._

* * *

I just let him tackle me again. It hurt. What could you expect from the strongest eevee in the farm? I just wanted to get this over with and figured that resisting would only prolong the attack.

"You little punk," Feral said, "What are you thinking? Trying to get cred by scarring us with that lie? Nah, I bet you were just trying to impress all of us with that lie. Which is it, liar?"

"You certainly have a way with words Feral." I said.

Thankfully Feral didn't pick up the sarcasm. "Don't try to get your way out of this with saying good things now. Just take your punishment like an eevee."

I don't know why Feral always insisted on physical solutions to his problems. All the other eevees just lay shed at my story. Some made fun of me. Some of them were pulling pranks. Feral's the only one that's gone over to physical violence.

"Admit that you were wrong and lying and I'll stop." Feral said as he tackled me again. "Come on, say it."

"Why do you care?" I might have been tempted into taking Feral up on his offer by I saw the trap. If I lied about what happened, the heat would go up. I wouldn't be the eevee with wild stories, I would be the liar. That would just convince the other eevees to be even meaner. If I stuck to my story I could expect the whole thing to blow over in the next few days.

When I didn't say anything, Feral hit me again. "Come on, don't you have anything to say?"

"Yeah," I said, "It's all true, everything."

"So you're sticking with the whole monster thing?"

"Yeah."

"You're saying that there's some buck toothed, red eyed, little monster running around in the air conditioning tunnels?"

"Yep."

Feral hit me again. "Stupid, don't you know that there are only humans and eevees in this world? Nothing else exists."

But I knew differently. I saw what I saw. There were monsters out there.

* * *

"So, no instincts are showing up yet?" said the jigglypuff.

"No, None at all. I could go for a cheese sandwich though." I said.

"I don't get it. We've been trying all morning and we still haven't tapped your inner wild eevee."

"I'm not sure that I have a wild inner eevee."

"Of course you do. What did your ancestors do in the wild?"

I thought for a while. "You know, I'm having a hard time picturing an eevee in the wild. Maybe we've always been with humans. Hey, maybe they once worshiped us as a symbol of the gods!"

"Now I have a hard time picturing that," the jigglypuff laughed.

I gave a short laugh, then said, "So since my superb hunting skills aren't working today, you mind if I count on you to help us find berries or something to eat."

Jigglypuff sent me off in a certain direction as he headed off to another. He said that we'd cover more ground that way. It made since. Of course, if you're in an action or horror story it's never a good idea, and in a few minutes I learned that this was in fact a horror story.

As I kept checking bushes for berries, I started to think about humans. Strange huh? I think that it had something to do with the image I was painting in my head about how Lin got her berries. _Do all humans just pick clean any bush they find? That leaves little choice for the rest of us. Then again, that's what I'd do if I were in the human's shoes. What does that make me? _

I kept that train of thought going till a voice made it come to a dead stop. "Well, what do we have here?"

I snapped back to attention. Completely surrounding me was the pack of growlithes. All were now barring their surprisingly long teeth at me. The leader, or at least the biggest one, came up to me.

"I didn't know eevee's could be found here." He said. He acted calm like he had all the time in the day. What did he have to worry about anyway? He was backed by a bunch of his own kind.

"I'm not wild!" I said a bit too quickly. "I just got separated from my trainer."

"Oh, that makes sense." The growlithe turned back to his friends. "Just some loser that got separated. Although," he turned back to me, "I would like to know why a jigglypuff sent is all over you."

_Lie._ "I met a jigglypuff earlier this morning. We fought over some berries. I won. That's why I have this sent."

The growlithe judged me. I prayed that he would believe and just when I thought he wasn't going to buy it he said, "So it's weak right. You hurt the little monster."

I blinked. "Monster?"

"Of course," the growlithe showed his impatience by barring his fangs at me, "all wild pokemon are monsters. Why do you think the humans use us to fight and capture them? They need to be tamed. They need to be taught discipline, even if it's the hard way. It's only fair."

"Were you taught the hard way?" I said without thinking.

All growlithes in the ring barked at me. "That doesn't matter!" the leader said. "Why should you care? We're on the same side right? Don't you believe in monsters?"

I knew better then tell him that one was standing in front of me. Instead I just gave a little nod yes.

"Good." The leader gave a signal to his posy. They broke the circle and spread out into the tall grass. "Now," the turned his attention back to me. "You are going to lead us to where you fought this jigglypuff."

"Huh? Why?"

The leader made a low sound in his thought that reminded me of Lin. "That monster sent us all to sleep the last time we met. He has to be terminated."

_Terminated. That sounds like a line from a bad movie._ "You mean like, rough him up? Teach him a lesson?"

"No. I'm going to kill him."

"Why?" it was getting hard to keep my legs form shaking now. _Kill? Who would do that? Who would want to do that to anybody, even a monster?_

"We've been educating all the monsters in this route by showing them how tough we are, how superior. But that little jerk put us to sleep. We can't let the monsters of this route think that wilds are any better than us tamed. We need to educate them as to what happens when you cross us."

Then I did something stupid. I could have done any number of better things at this point. I could have run for it. I could have lied. I could have lead them in another direction and got lost. I could have babbled on until they lost interest in me. But I didn't do any of these smart things. Instead I did something I rarely ever do. I choose to be stupidly brave.

"You're the monsters."

The growlithe in front of me gave me an icy look I wouldn't have thought possible for a fire type. I should have taken that for a hint but I continued. "All jigglypuff was doing was defending itself. That's what any of you would do. You want to kill him for doing what you would have done yourselves? You're all insane! That jigglypuff is far better than any of you."

I ran out of words to scream. The growlithes were quite for a while. Then the leader said, "Kill him."

"Hey you know what qualities you growlithes all have in common?" a voice came from a little ways away. "You're all red, inbreed, and brain dead!"

"It's him! The jigglypuff!" the growlithes lost all interest in me and took off after the jigglypuff who now rolled away at top speed.

Silence settled over me. _They're gone? Why had jigglypuff done that?_ I hesitated to think it all the way through. _He did it to lead them away from me. To save me._

I stood there, uncertain of what I should do. Then I made another stupidly brave choice. I ran after them.

I never was a good runner. I knew that jigglypuffs was faster than me. However, I was certain that the growlithes were faster than us both. I was right.

I entered a clearing just in time to see my first murder. The growlithes were surrounding the leader. All were barking excitedly except the leader because he carried the jigglypuff in his mouth. Then I heard a sound that I could only call a sound of death. Jigglypuff stopped struggling.

Something snapped inside of me and I did my third stupidly brave act of the morning. I screamed and charged the seven growlithes. They all scattered and for a brief moment I could see a hint of guilt in their eyes. They seemed to be shocked enough not to immediately attack me.

I looked down at my friend. I could feel him dying. He couldn't show any expression on his face but looked me in the eye. His breathing slowed, almost to a complete stop. Then he took one last long breath that seemed to say thank you. Then jigglypuff died.

I turned to look at the leader of the monsters. _No words._ I thought. _No words._

The leader recovered, and then attacked me. His tackle attack carried with it a bit more weight than mine. He was faster as well. In fact it seemed like he had me beat in every way. However, I had the better training.

The growlithe's tackle pushed me away from him, far enough for me to roll myself into position for perfect sand attack. The growlithe screamed at his weakened since of vision and made for me again, shouting how he was going to show me who was superior. He looked fierce enough to have me half believe it.

_A worth of a pokemon isn't just his statistics but in what techniques he has._ Lin's memory snapped me out of thinking negatively. I tossed myself to the side and let the growlithe barreled past me. When he turned around, a stream of sand caught him in the eyes.

I was ready for offence now. While growlithe tried to retain his composure, I shot at him. I gave him a satisfying slam into his chest then tried to back away. The growlithe was faster and before I knew it he was standing right above me, not much distance for sand attack to really matter.

The growlithe lowered his head instead of tackling me like I was expecting. No, I got something much worse. The monsters teeth clamped down of my leg. He picked me off the ground and shook me a few times. Then he tossed me aside. Few moves I had encountered were that powerful or that shocking. I couldn't help but flinch.

The leader of the pack didn't even look pleased with himself. He just kept coming at me with blind rage until-

"Eevee! Underneath his legs!"

I didn't even have time to shake myself out of the shook of the situation. I barely managed to get myself through the growlithes legs. Then I spun myself around to see Lin towering at the edge of the clearing.

The lead growlithe hesitated again at Lin's unexpected appearance. He just watched her with the rest to the growlithes. All looked as if they had just frozen. Even though the leader's face didn't show it, all the other growlithes looked shamed.

Lin studied the scene. She checked me out for a while. She glanced at the growlithes who took a step back. She gave a long look to the leader. When Lin's eyes crossed over the jigglypuff she shuddered.

"Eevee," she finally said. "Get over to me."

As I began to walk over to her the leader of the pack screamed and charged me.

I had too little time to think. I did the first thing that came to my mind. My tail hardened. I turned around just in time to use steel tail to smash the growlithe's face. He spun long ways in air a few time before crashing down. None of the other growlithes tried to stop me.

When I reached Lin she picked me up in her arms. The rest was a blur. I guess the police came and picked up all the growlithes. Officer Jenny talked with Lin. People room Pewter showed up and I even thought I saw Brock. It didn't matter to me though. I just clung as hard as I could to Lin.

Lin buried jigglypuff after everyone was gone. We stood there in silence for a long time then left together. Neither one of us spoke a single word.

On the way back I decided to change how I viewed my world. There are humans, there are monsters, and then, there are those like me, pokemon.

**Sincerely,**

**Err… he died. Not very nice, but it had to be done.**

**On a lighter note, the answer to our WTF!**

**It's Al Gore!**


	5. Rocket Fuel

**Author's note:**

**It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day in the neighborhood- oh! Hi children. Did you come to see what wonderful adventures are happening in the wonderful world of pokemon today? Well, let's take a look!**

**

* * *

**

Rocket Fuel

"It was good to see you again. No offence but I hope it's a long time till we meet back up." Said Officer Jenny.

"I understand. Thank you again officer." Lin said.

Another policeman put his hand on Lin's shoulder. "Boy, you'll make a great trainer. You've done three impossible acts in the one week you've been a trainer. You must be special to survive all that."

Officer Jenny cleared her throat. "Now sergeant, we don't want to encourage her, do we? She shouldn't go out looking for these adventures."

"She…" the poor sergeant looked confused.

Officer Jenny sighed. "Lin, promise me that you'll try to stay away from life and death situations for a while."

"Yes mam." Said Lin. "Trust me; I'm not looking for them. Thank you for everything." Lin turned and walked away. Just as she was heading out the door of the police station, Officer Jenny came up behind us.

"Wait Lin." We stopped. Officer Jenny came up and handed Lin something. "It was hard to find this. Normally I would just transmit a certificate to your pokedex but this will have to do."

"What is this?" asked Lin.

"It's a revive. It dose what it says."

Lin thanked Officer Jenny and left the building. It was getting late. The long shadows of the mountains already covered Pewter city. I knew that I was ready for a good nights rest. We had spent the better part of the day dealing with the aftermath of the growlithe attacks. I didn't get beat to a pulp but for some reason I was exhausted.

"I really don't get it." Lin said. "They all seem to praise me for this but you're the one that found the growliths and made enough noise for me to hear. Maybe they just don't like giving pokemon awards."

"Ha! It's about time someone paid attention to me." I said. "I was starting to think that you guys forgot about me."

We were heading to the pokemon center. That was a relief to me. I didn't feel like fighting anymore today.

"Tomorrow we'll head out to Mt. Moon. There's a rest stop just before the mountain. We'll just train in that area before we try to get through to Cerulean City."

"Try, Lin? Not very encouraging." _So in two days I get to tackle my first underground adventure. Hopefully we don't get lost this time._ Somehow being buried alive seemed a bit scarier then being permanently stuck in a forest. "Hey, there aren't any pikachus are there?"

"If that was some comment on our trip to Viridian forest," said Lin. "Don't worry. This time I'll bring everything we need and some things we won't. I'll even ask for directions this time. And I promises that I'll stay on the path."

"You sound very sure of yourself. Ok, whatever." I said and before I could stop myself I added, "What could go wrong?"

* * *

"What could go wrong?" the Rocket said to himself.

He finished packing. The suitcase was filled with civilian and rocket uniforms. The rest of the gear would be provided on site. Including his weapon. He still hadn't been assigned a new pokemon. He didn't think of it as special treatment. Nobody but the new administrators had any pokemon right now. The entire Viridian department was still recovering from the string of loses. 1st casting the gym in suspicion. 2nd losing the nidorino. 3rd just being plain stupid.

Now the higher ups were trying a new strategy, the dissolution effect. They thought if all the losers were separated into the rest of the Johto group then the losers might cause less damage.

_Like that will happen._ The Rocket thought. _At least I will get away from these guys. I'll definitely be able to shine now that I'm not covered by the excess of idiots Giovanni picked up._

Within a few minutes the Rocket was out the room and to the garage. After talking to the now demoted and very unhappy administrator, he made it to the truck that would take him to his next assigned group. He was very excited. He had always wanted to visit Mt. Moon.

* * *

"I can't believe that we made it with out getting lost." I said. Lin and I were coming up to the pokemon center and it never looked so nice. The sun sat directly about us like a spot light. There were a small group of trainers by the pokemon center cheering us on or maybe they were battling. "Just think, a whole route without a life and death struggle. I guess we're going to be able to take it easy huh?"

We'd fought a few trainers, nothing special. It just seemed pretty mundane. _Tackle, sand attack, tackle again. When are things going to get exciting again?_ In a flash I realized what I just thought implied that I wanted trouble. "No!" I screamed. "I didn't mean it! Don't do anything to me!"

"Yep, it's great to see a pokemon center in a place like this." Lin said, displaying her usual lack of inter species communication. "We'll rest there a bit and start trying to get some directions through Mt. Moon."

"Thank Arceus." I said. "If I ever had to rely on you getting us through a maze again I'd die of a heart attack." Lin seemed to be holding up to her side of the bargain pretty well. Nice easy trip today, some lit training in the afternoon, and then a quick easy trip through Mt. Moon.

Lin stopped a few paces from the PC. "Huh? Now what's that all about? Isn't that were the entrance to Mt. Moon is?"

I followed Lin's gaze to a sight that made me a bit nervous. A large mob of humans were surrounding a large cave entrance. They were all carrying large sticks with large papers at the top that kept flopping around so I couldn't read them. I couldn't read their expressions but something told me, _Danger Ricochet!_

So of course Lin start's walking over there. "Are they not letting anyone in the caves? How long are they going to be there? Why are they doing this?"

"How about these answers." I said. "Who cares, as long as they want, and they have lots of time. Plus, they have big sticks. Remember what happened last time we followed the crowd? I remember a guy in a black suit waiting for us. So let's just leave them alone."

Lin ignored me. Once we got closer to the mob, I could see that they were all angry. _Great. Why dose there have to be so many angry people everywhere._ I took a closer look at their signs so I could see if we could be a potential target. "Moon, eco, stop, peace, rocks, pokemon, jezz! Will you people stop waving your signs around for a second and stay in one place so I can read them!"

"Miss!"

Lin and I made wussy noises, mine far less wussy, and turned to the surprised attacker. He was a very large human and wise looking too. Which I'm told is the politically correct way of saying that he's old and fat. He was wheezing and doubled over but he managed to talk just fine.

"Miss," he said. "Have you heard of the Great War? The spread of the disease called pokeruis? The melting of the polar ice caps? What about the spreading of violent storms?"

"Uhm, I might have gone over that in school." Lin said.

"Heck, that all sounds terrible." I said. Words like violent, war and disease usually meant bad things. "Why is all this happening to me?"

"Why, miss? You want to know why?" the old man said.

"Yes!" I said. "Please I need to know!"

"This all started when the moon rocks came!"

Both Lin and I were quite for a moment. She looked sown at where I was standing and shot me a look that showed that she blamed me for all of this. I felt a little cheated.

"Yes, the moon rocks!" the old man must have thought that our silence was an invitation to explain more. "All these events happened soon after the moon stones and the clefairies showed up, when that meter came. This is undeniable proof of the powerful nature of this mountain. Do you know what the government wants to do with this natural wonder?"

"No way. I'm not going to be sucked in this time." I said. I took Lin's sweatpants by my mouth and gave it a tug. After I fought the gag reflex brought on by the nasty flavor of haven't-been-washed-in-a-week and swearing never to do that again, I said, "Lin, let's get going. Crazy man needs his nap."

Lin cleared her throat, which is usually a show stopper, but it didn't even faze this guy.

"They're letting 'the man' drill it, rip up the insides and desecrate the area's that had never been touched by man! Can you accept this obscene murder?"

I put aside the fact that the old, fat guy was complaining about 'the man' and approached the last part of his argument. "Wait. How did we get from drill to murder?"

"Sir, I really didn't want to bother you. I was just curious." Lin said.

"So you agree with murderers!"

"No!" Lin's face got a little red and her fingers started twitching. "I only want to know when I can go through the mountain."

"So you're one of them!"

"I don't care about the dang mountain. Blow it up for all I care! Just let me get through!"

"It's the man!" fats shouted towards the crowd. He pointed his finger at Lin and kept accusing her of insane things. When all the mobs attention turned to Lin, I started to compare the distance between us , the pokemon center and the mob. Lin just glared at the old man.

"I don't want any trouble." She said quietly. "I'll just be going now."

"Are you really here to pick a fight or just here to desecrate our mountain?" A new voice said.

I looked the guy down and up. He was a lot less creepy than that old fart and much taller too. I'm no expert on human ages but I'd put him around adult age. He had glasses which sat evenly across his face with white rims. His hair was the color of my fur and his skin must have never seen the light of day. Either that or he was powdering himself.

I looked at Lin who was looking the new threat up and down. What ever she was looking for she must have found it. She kept the blush but lost the angry expression.

"I'm passing though the mountain now." She said. "I just don't want to have to lose stamina getting through you all. It's a long way through."

"If you're worried about stamina then you should rest in the PC before trying to go through."

Lin's face spasmed. I guess that logic can feel like a hard slap at times. Still Lin persisted in not being reasonable. "I'll go though when I want to go through. I want to go through now."

"Lin." I felt where this was headed. "I seem to remember this scene already. Didn't we get our butt's kicked? No wait, didn't I get my but kicked last time."

"You may not be the attacker." Said the man "But you're definitely part of the problem. People like you are what truly hurt this mountain."

"So are you challenging me? Said Lin.

"What!" I did a double take on the stranger. This time I noticed the pokeball. "Crap. Lin, what happened to our record? We went a whole morning with out any plot."

The stranger sighed, in a familiar sort of way. Then he tossed his pokeball in such a fluid movement that I couldn't help but to be stunned to silence.

When the light reentered the pokeball, I saw my opponent. At first my heart twisted when I saw that it resembled a jigglypuff but it was too tall, like someone squeezed it too hard. It had a few more accessories as well.

"An eevee?" he said. "I haven't seen one of you guys in along time."

"And I've never seen a pokemon like you before. What are you?"

"A clefairy."

I thought that over for a while. _Well, I'm doing ok so far. I haven't done it all this morning. Ah screw it, he deserves it. _"So you're a fairy huh? I thought that there was something feminine about you."

"What? Wait, what are you trying to say?"

"Oh, you aren't out of the closet yet? Don't worry; your secret is safe with me."

"Oh! Hey! That's the name of my entire species. It's not our fault that it's the only thing we can say. What if I called your type of pokemon peewees?"

"Then you would be the ones driving us to practice."

"I'm going to kick your tail."

Lin decided that it was time to fight now. "Sand attack eevee!"

I turned tail and let 'er ripe. Half way through I heard the stranger say, "Protect."

I turned around and waited for Lin's explanation of this new move. I could see that my sand attack had no affect on this guy. The clefairy was starring me down, eyes not even budging. _Come on. Is my attack already obsolete?_

Lin's response wasn't comforting either. "Protect? But how?"

The stranger's response wasn't that much better. "Metronome."

_Great. That's two attacks I don't- OH! Look at the moving fingers! Wow, he's got great motor control skills to make them move at the same time like that._

"Oh…" Lin paused. Then her voice got louder. "Oh! Crap! Sorry eevee!"

"Huh? Sorry about what?" I looked at her face. It looked at me in pity. _That can't be good._ I looked back at the clefairy who was still doing his highly entertaining finger dance. "What's going to happen?"

* * *

The Rocket had seen everything the battle could have taught him. He began to scan his new coworkers. Most were form an older generation, maybe a year or two over him. Even among those there were newbie's like him. They must have come from the Celadon group. He had heard that Giovanni had begun recruiting from there as well.

A sigh of disappointment brought the Rockets attention back to the battle. Some newbie grunt just lost too another. The Rocket could hardly believe that they could get away with carrying on a rocket hierarchy tournament in broad daylight. They were right outside the pokemon center. He could even see the entrance to Mt. Moon.

"Hey kid!" the Rocket knew that such a general pronoun could have been applied to anyone of them there. He also knows that there were civilians mixed with the crowd. That meant no names, rank or powerful pokemon. Everything had to look like a mundane series of battles.

The only administrator, the one who had gone through great lengths to disguise the true intentions of this meeting, was ushering him into the circle. He was last by choice to fight his way up through the hierarchy. The grunts were anxious to see him try to claim a spot over the highest ranking civilian. They had probably bet money on him losing on the first try. He was all ready marked as one of the crew ups at Viridian city.

_But not after this._ Thought the Rocket.

His opponent was a grunt that had lost to every civilian and member of team he had come up against. Even he looked confident.

The Rocket gave the grunt a look of disgust and then turned to the administrator. "Let's just wrap this whole thing up quickly, all right. I'm sure we're all tired at waiting."

The grunts jaws dropped and the civilians started looking at each other. The administrator cracked his neck. The Rocket pretended like nothing was the matter. Sure, in a formal situation, talking kike that to an administrator would be big trouble. Still, they weren't in a formal setting were they?

"Let's just skip the boring fight's I know I'll win and fight the top man." When the administrator raised his eyebrow the Rocket pointed at the grunt in the lead. _No administrator. Rocket's don't get to your level solely on there battle ability. There are other ways to deal with you._

The lead grunt laughed. "Are you really expecting me to lose? Or maybe you think that you'll take me out on a fluke?"

The Rocket shrugged, pretending that this wasn't part of his plan. "If that's what you're afraid of, I'll tackle the second too." He paused for the suspension to thicken, "I'll take you both on at the same time."

Whispers exploded everywhere. Some where in the back there was talk of 'illegal?' The overwhelming majority of the crowd however, showed a shy interest. The administrator wasn't in control anymore; the circle was focused on the Rocket. This would be the reason that at that moment the administrator was starring at the Rocket like his head could be made into a nice trophy. All his hard work to keep things discreet was being pushed out a ten story building.

_Keep cool administrator._ Thought the Rocket. _You're too old. You've lost touch with this younger generation._ "What? Are you guys afraid of a little fun?"

The first and second grunt's came out to the circle. The last grunt just about fled in terror but managed to walk away with dignity.

"You're in for big trouble." The two undercover rockets said. They threw out the pokemon they had been leant.

"Ekans!"

"Koffing!"

The Rocket smiled. He didn't bother with the for play. He just tossed his pokemon onto the field.

There were a few suppressed laughs and a handful of gasps when the Rocket reviled his pokemon. Had the Rocket himself not learned the lesson that girl had taught him he might have been on their side. But the Rocket learned, he learned very well.

"A rattata?" One of his opponents asked. "You got stuck will a loser pokemon and tried to fight two people at a time? You must be-"

"Quick attack."

The rattata flashed in front of the ekans and preformed what suspiciously looked like a tackle attack. The rat pokemon quickly returned to his master's side.

_This is a good one. _The Rocket thought. He was a little concerned that the rattata would be uncooperative but it looked like he wouldn't have to worry about that now. He could do this. To the other grunts in disguise he said, "Oh, I'm sorry. Were we not fighting after all?"

They both grunted, living up to their eternal post, and started the dig and tackle strategy. The ekans would go under ground and the koffing would get up in the air to make it impossible for the Rockets rattata to hit them. Then, while he was in a shock of their brilliant strategy, they would come at this pokemon from down below and from the heavens.

The Rocket clicked his tongue. "Old hat gentlemen. Rattata, get to the other side of the field on my command."

The rattata obeyed and stayed motionless despite the pressure it must have felt. Its beady eyes were focused on the humans its current master was fighting. It felt good to the rattata to be under control of a master with confidence. The rattata had spent his whole life wrapped in the clock of team Rocket secrecy. He had passed threw the hands of many trainers, too many to remember and most not worth remembering. By being exposed to so many humans it had developed another sense that separated the weak humans form the truly talented. This human was not weak.

The Rocket was also pleased with this pokemon's lack of hesitation. He made a mental note to find such pokemon in the future. "Now rattata."

A rattata is a pretty fast pokemon. It had no trouble getting over to his opponents side of the field. The ekans and the koffing had plenty of trouble on his side though. They had both collided with one another and were now sprawled across the ground.

"Quick attack on ekans."

Quicker then a rapidash on a moving sidewalk, the rattata busted the ekans and made a speedy get away.

The Rocket had hoped that the grunts would make things easy on him and try the some strategy again. He had no such lick though. His opposing team mated tried another old strategy. One grunt ordered his koffing to attack with poison gas while the other was ordered to some at the rattata from behind.

_This will be a bit trickier._ Before the ekans could get into position, the Rocket said "Glance the under side of koffing with quick attack."

To the Rockets great satisfaction, the rattata performed the attack without flaw. The effect on the koffing was to give it a top spin. The koffing tried to spew out the gas but all of green gas was pushed into a disk around him. It almost looked like a ringed planet.

Before the gas could reach the rattata, he was ordered to the right. This moved him out of the reach of the gas and behind the now solid wall of opaque gas. It wasn't quite a smoke screen but it didn't manage to get the ekans charging on the other side to hesitate. It had not gotten into position on time and had instead tried to come at rattatas side. Now it could only stop and stare at what the normal type had done. He couldn't see the rattata that well either. Still, that hesitation would be the last mistake it would make that day. The rattata charged the ekans from around the left side of the smoke screen and shot him down with a perfect quick attack. The ekans shad enough and gave up the will to fight.

_Just one on one now._ The Rocket thought.

When the koffing stopped spraying gas and spinning, it turned around just in time to see rattata fulfilling his last quick attack of the day. Then everything went black.

Cheers went up from the crowd. Groans came form the losers. A half smile of approval came from the administrator. The Rocket gave a nod to the rattata that served him for the trial and recalled it.

"All right." The administrator had one of those voiced that cut through the noise without need for volume. "I think we have our winner. That's it for the day."

The crowd broke up. Some of the grunts headed into the Pc with the civilians. It would have looked too suspicious if all the team members left in the same direction.

Some of the grunts shot peaks at the Rocket, not sure of what to make of him. He had won against what they had thought were impossible odds. He had also broken one of the elite four's rules in front of civilians. Could he really get away with that?

The Rocket, who understood people better, knew that he would. There was a growing trend among the younger generation. They liked the word 'if'. 'if I could combine these attacks, if I could complement that pokemon power, if I could just use more than one…' the elite four would hear any of it but that was the world Team Rocket promised the trainers of Johto. A world without the elite four's ideas and limitations. And the Rocket had just exposed the young minds that might embrace this ideology.

The administrator was aware of this as well. He had kept careful track of which trainers showed the most interest in the illegal battle. The planned to pass word to the Cerulean city group to try to recruit the trainers as they come through the mountain. As for the rest, well, they would be too ashamed that they participated to go to the authorities.

The administrator looked at the grunt that dared make such a brilliantly risky move. The grunt looked back at him with a smile that seemed to say, "Yeah, I'm that good."

The Rockets smile quickly faded as he passed a couple heading back to the pokemon center. The Rocket didn't recognize the nerd in the glasses. It was the strangely dressed girl carrying the fainted eevee that got his attention.

* * *

I came to in the pokemon center in a bed next to a pikachu. The fat yellow rattata was shaking badly. When I caught its eyes, they widened to freighting levels.

_I hope waking up with strange pokemon doesn't become a habit of mine._ "Err, hi. What's your name?"

"Did you get a chancy egg?" the pikachus voice was incredulous, like it already knew the answer but really wanted me to say something different.

"Well, no." I said. "At least I don't think I did. I've been unconscious for a while now so-"

"Chansey egg! I need my change egg! Give me yours!"

Now I had given this pokemon a fair shot. One had paralyzed me before and I was trying to forgive and forget. This guy wasn't giving to let me though. I began to worry what he'd do to me if I wouldn't have.

"Hey!" a familiar voice behind me said. "Jump onto my bed. I think that guy may go nuts any second."

I turned around to face the clefairy from the last-thing-I-saw. "Why are you in here." Then after a second I added, "Wait, why am I in here?"

"Just get over hear and I'll explain it."

I glanced at the pikachu. He was still looking at me and had started to drool. I figured that the evil I knew was better then being eaten by a rabid pokemon. A short jump latter I was with the clefairy.

"Poor guy." the clefairy said. "That pikachus trainer thinks that electric pokemon can defeat rock/ground types if it just believes in itself. It's been in here so often I think that it's addicted to chansey eggs."

I made a mental note to never let Lin sucker me into a battle that way. "So what happened to me? The last thing I remember was the dancing fingers."

"Kid, you got knocked the #^$ out. I'm a level way higher than you. I've been tossing around zubats for years."

I disregarded my question about what a zubat was. That only left me with one. "So you're a higher level then me. What move did you use?"

"The finger dance? That was metronome kid. It's a move that tweak's my brain and allows me to use a move of any pokemon around me."

I bit back a comment about the tweaking of the brain. I glanced back at the pikachu who was still watching me. I think that he was drooling even more that there were two meals in sight.

"Did I hit you at least? That's why you're here right?" I said to the clefairy.

"Oh no. I'm not here for the HP. No one's even come close to hitting me for a while now. I'm just recovering my power points."

This did little for my self-esteem. I decided to change directions. "What's your name?"

"Ha! Do I look like a big headed physic type to you? What kind of egocentric pokemon needs a name?"

I was saved by a nurse that was erringly similar to the other pink lady's I'd seen before. She didn't even stop to question why I wasn't in my bed. We were rushed out to the hallway where I could hear the pikachus screams for medication grow softer. Soon we were at the main counter where both Lin and the stranger were waiting.

The clefairy went over to his trainer at once. I hesitated a little when I saw Lin standing next to the stranger. She seemed to be standing just a little too close to him. At the very least she was now closer to another human being then I'd ever seen before.

"Some on eevee," She said. "Norm has given us great directions through Mt. Moon. We're hiking through tonight."

"Wait." Everyone present gave Lin a different reaction. Norm said that direction giving wasn't an invitation to do exactly what he had tried to stop earlier this day. The clefairy protested that going through the cave at night wasn't an option. The nurse, looking out for my health, told Lin to eat something first. A passerby mentioned something about cheese but that may have had nothing to do with us. I went with this.

"Norm?" I shoot him a glance. "Since when dose he get a name? I thought that we just referred to other people as officer, nurse or sir."

"Calm down." Lin said to all of us. "If I head out tonight I'll be able to leave the mountain during the morning or at least the daylight. I can avoid all the protesters and even have time the next day to train." She quickly added for me. "After a quick nap of course. And I promise to eat some cheese before leaving nurse." This satisfied the nurse. She left leaving all of our mouths open. Since I never let my open mouth remain empty for long, I said "Yeah! Uh… that's right." _Crap! What did I just say?_

"But even we're never gone through at night before." Said the clefairy and his trainer.

"Well we're just that good." I said. "Especially with dark spaces." _Shoot Ricochet! Pull out while you have the chance!_

"Don't worry about me." Said Lin. She then attempted a girlish laugh. I kid you not when I say everyone in the entire pokemon center stopped what they were doing to discover what made such a creepy sound. "It's not like you can stop me anyways."

"Trust me. Just give up mow." I added. _No! No, don't just let this happen!_

Norm gritted his teeth. "I can't let you go through alone and I guess I can't keep beating your eevee down all night."

"Yeah, cause I'll just keep coming back." _What are you saying? Have you lost your freaking mind?_

"I guess that we'll just have to go with you." Norm said. "When something goes wrong at least I'll be there to drag you back out."

"Nothing will go wrong." Lin said looking very pleased with herself.

"Are we expecting something to go wrong?" the clefairy asked to no one.

I responded, keeping both eyes on Norm. "Trust me, something always goes wrong."

* * *

"I'm putting you in charge of the harvest site. Do as you see fit."

The Rocket couldn't be any prouder. Especially with her being here. Even though the other members of team rocket didn't know it, the entire operation was at steak. The Rocket had thought the first time was a coincidence. The second time confirmed what he thought impossible. That girl avoided an attack by a gym leader's stolen pokemon. Not just any gym either, a very prestigious one. You don't do that by being a bone head. She was smart, maybe even more so than he. And worse, she was lucky. The Rocket knew she'll be there to mess with him before too long. The only thing that he had on his side was his own disregard for the rules, the one's she wouldn't break. The organization needed him in charge.

"As such, the administrator continued, "you will have first choice to any equipment you think that you will need and that includes pokemon."

_There's a plus._ The Rocket had already chosen which pokemon he would take. _At least this time I can't be beaten by that eevee, my pokemon's level is too high._

The Rocket thanked the administrator and left to the makeshift storage garage where they were keeping the supplies. The rocket immediately griped his new pokemon. Then he scanned over the weapons and other equipment, trying to piece them all together in a plan.

His eyes rested over the sonic charges. "Now there's an idea." He counted them and did a little math based on the maps of the cave. "Yeah. That just might do it."

He latter ordered his subordinates to place the sonic charges in specific areas, none of which were anywhere near his site. Later he explained his plans to the administrator, he gave a nervous chuckle. It was probably for his hob. The Rocket however, had no reason to be nervous this time.

* * *

I could tell that it was the entrance to the cave because it was darker than the rest of the empty blackness that surrounded it. The clouds stopped us from seeing the moon, which I thought was kind of ironic and there was no city to light our way.

"It's not to late to turn back now." Norm said knowing full well that it was a lie.

Lin just started to walk forward. I kept close to her so she wouldn't get lost. At first I thought our unwanted quests had given up hope of ever seeing us alive again but then I heard his footsteps. I could barley see their silhouettes on the other side of Lin. I charged over to that side.

"So." I began. "How long is Norm going to hang around us? Call me crazy but I think that he's going above and beyond the call of duty here."

I heard the clefairy responded from Norm's circle of comfort. "He's just being nice. You guys don't know how dangerous this pace can be at night."

"Oh, and you do? I thought that you've never been in here at night."

"Well, you don't have to have been here to know it's dangerous."

I kept looking at nothing. I could only tell we were in the cave because of the smooth rocks beneath me. It was colder as well; like we'd dived into deep water as soon s we entered. It felt like I was back in Brocks gym. Hopefully this would be a bit easier.

I stubbed my paw on a rock. "Ouch! I can't see anything!" I said. "If only one of us could learn a move that could shine a light bright enough to clear away the darkness. You could even shine light into you're opponents eyes to blind them."

I heard Lin fumble around in her magic jacket. A few moments latter a bright light surrounded our group. It came from a lantern Lin produced from a jacket no bigger than a small pillow.

The clefairy gave me a funny look. "Or we could just use a lantern."

The last time I'd felt this dumb was when I thought I had to cut down a bush with my teeth to get a dropped bag on the other side. I was at least halfway through the first branch when Lin walked around it.

I got a good look at my surroundings. T really did look like Brocks gym in here. Of course Brocks gym wasn't inside a mountain. And it may have been a trick of the light but every rock seemed like a geodude. There was even a flouting blue rock.

"Wait, flouting rocks aren't blue!" I got a closer look at this phenomenon. _That's not a rock at all! It's a pokemon._ This one had the strangest wings I'd ever seen. There wasn't a feather on them. It had a wide gapping mouth with a handful of teeth. The creepiest part was the lack of eyes.

"I guess that I shouldn't ask if it's seen us."

"A zubat." Lin said. "A poison flying type. It puts pokemon to sleep and then sucks their blood."

"You know, I'm trying to start a fresh view of my pokemon brothers." I said. "I don't need you introducing me to the blood sucking pidgey from hell."

"Looks like it's ready for a fight." Norm said.

"Try not to get knocked out in the first few seconds." Clefairy said.

"Eevee, get ready to tackle." Lin said.

_Let me guess, it's faster than me._ The zubat streaked over with a speed I'd never seen before. _Yep._

I had to rely on my defense for this one. I braced myself to take the attack. The dual type was right in my face now. It reached out to me with it's teeth and- _Huh?_ I felt a tiny prick. It was like someone pulled out a single strand of hair. _Wait, was that it?_ I was so stunned that I let the zubat flap out of tackle range.

"Leech life." Lin said. "It recovers a small bit of the HP it takes from it's opponent."

"How much damage dose it do? That didn't really hurt."

"It's really not that great of a move."

If the zubat was insulted I couldn't tell. With a face like that it was hard to read any emotion. It simply dive bombed me again.

The time I was ready. I endured another pen prick and launched myself at the zubat. It was surprisingly squishy. I'd knocked it down to the ground where I realized that the poor thing didn't have any feet. I had obviously caused massive damage judging on it's pathetic fluttering around. I almost wanted to tackle it out of it's misery from pure pity.

It made one more attempt to attack which I easily blocked. It only took one more tackle to send him to the dream world. Of course it was hard to tell if it was really fainted or not sense it didn't have any eyes to close.

"That was a disappointment." Lin said. "I feel kind of guilty actually."

My heart lurched as Norm patted Lin on t he shoulder. He laughed "I give it a half an hour."

Half an hour latter.

"Curse you!" I finished off another zubat. "Can't I take one flipping step without you guys zooming up my butt?"

"Honestly." Lin was visibly angry now. "Do these little monsters ever give up? I swear we must have knocked out half a cave full by now."

Norm finally spoke "What? No more 'poor zubat'?"

The clefairy was laughing out loud. "Dude, you've totally lost your cool huh?"

"There's no end to these things!" I said. "They just keep coming."

"I'd almost prefer an onix at this point." Lin said.

"Whoa! I wouldn't go that far."

Norm took this as an opportunity to mock us. "We could go back but this is how it is during the day too. Having second thoughts?"

"No!" Lin and I said in unison.

Clefairy laughed. Norm just shrugged and said, "Well why don't we just use this for a while to give us a breather." He pulled a spray bottle from his fanny pack.

"A repel?" Lin said. "Is that really necessary?"

"Do you want to commit mass zubat massacre?"

"Spray it."

Norm motioned for Lin to stand closer to him. He sprayed the repel in front of him and told Lin to walk through. Both Lin and I walked through. Big mistake. I didn't realize that this was one of those human only things.

(Ahhh! It burns!) I said.

"Why do you apply the repel like that?" said Lin.

(Wait, you walked through the repel? I can't see anything in this light.) Said the clefairy.

"That's how may mother use to apply it." said Norm.

(Yes! Yes I walked through it! My nose! My Mouth! Ahh!)

"Has she lived near Mt. Moon all her life?" Lin asked.

(That's for humans only. It keeps weaker pokemon than you from attacking.)

"Yep. My family had been clefairy trainers for generations. Did you know that clefairies came the same time as the moon stones?"

(That makes no sense!)

"You said clefairy, not clefable."

(Oh come on, like anything makes sense around here. We just pulled a spray bottle out of a fanny pack.)

"My family doesn't believe in using the moon stones for human purposes. The power is far to great to be trusted to us."

(Just tell me this, if humans can make all this pokemon ball, pc, and fanny packs that are completely wacky, why can't they build a house with out a pokemon?)

"So you wont let clefairy evolve?"

(That's kind of random.)

"Actually, we believe clefairies are the only pokemon that should evolve with a moon stone. They just could do it on their own free will and not because some human thought it was time."

(More like you're random.)

"I guess that clefairies don't evolve that often then."

(Oh come on. Wait, I think that they're fleshing out the plot without us.)

I tuned back to the conversation just in time to hear Norm say, "Yeah, it's not like the stones are bad. They've just got to be controlled."

"Wow." I said. "I came in on the wrong part of that conversation."

We walked in silence for a ways. I was grateful for the repel. Who ever sold Norm the stuff was a great guy. It's too bad we'd have to leave him, the poke mart salesman, behind as soon as we left this cave. Yep Lin would never have to be near that salesman again.

"Wait." Said Norm. He reached right over me to get to Lin. I guess he wanted to douse the lantern. We all started listening closely. Few moments passed than I heard the voice. It sounded like an underappreciated youth with a bad attitude.

"Gosh, why you got to make me the grunt. Any idiot could do this work, jezz."

"How many people go through this cave at night?" whispered Lin.

After a few, the clefairy said, "If you could see his face right now it would say something like 'oh crap! What's going on' except in a more manly way."

"I'm not so sure about that last part." I whispered back.

Norm hushed us. "Maybe he wont notice us."

That seemed like a reasonable idea. Everyone understood that if we just stayed to the wall of cave, the mystery man would just walk right past us. He had a flash light at chest level and pointed it strait ahead. He would never be able to see anything to the side, or below him. Unfortunately I happened to be below him where everyone left me as they failed to explain their plan.

The dark figure tripped over me. After I recovered my breath I noticed him shinning the light at me. "Huh?"

"Eevee!" said Lin.

"Lin!" Norm said.

"Norm!" the clefairy said.

"A rocket!" I said.

"Yah! Too many voices at once!" the rocket said. He grabbed a pokeball from his waist and tossed it into the darkness to the side of me.

"Ouch!" Lin's voice cried out. The flash from the emerging pokemon reveled Lin, Norm and the clefairy for an instant. I caught a brief glimpse at what I'd be fighting. It was shorter than me. It was reddish in this light except for the greenish growth on it's back which could have either been a plant or some kind of wart.

"Eevee, get ready," Lin said. "It's native to this cave."

I guessed that this meant that it could see me but I couldn't see it. The only light in the tunnel came from the rockets flashlight which was now pointed at Lin's face

I turned to the last location of the wartamon just in time to feel it's slight prick on my side. It took me a second to register what just happened.

"Leech life! Are you freaking kidding me! Is that all you guys do here!"

Unexpected burst of anger isn't an official technique but it managed to cause lumpy to flinch. He stayed still just long enough for me to ruin his day. After I tackled him he disappeared into the darkness again.

"Not another battle in the dark." I said. "Lin can't you do something about this?"

"What is it eevee?" Lin said. "Would you like more light?"

"Uhm, yeah. Thank you." _She's getting better at this interspecies communication thing. Maybe it's time I bring up the booties again._

Another pinch of my side brought me back to the unhappy present. I made another go at the rocket's secret shame but missed by miles. At least I thought I did. It's kind of hard to tell when you can't see your opponent. In fact you can't tell at all, no one can. You know what, I missed by a hair, almost got him. Yep.

"Norm, what are you waiting for?" Lin growled.

I heard Norm mumble some kind of apology and light came back into my life. The puss filled pokemon I was fighting appeared to my left. Luckily it was slow enough for me to dodge it's attack.

"And you!" Lin continued. "Will you stop shining that flashlight in my eyes?"

It was the rockets turn to apologies. _Gezz, maybe she should use that tone to stop him form attacking us._

Lin rubbed her eyes then peered over the area. After a second she started to rub her head and said, "First of all watch where you're throwing your pokeballs. And second, eevee, sand attack that paras now!"

I gave the newly christened paras a mud bath. "Just add water! I told him.

The paras let out a high pitch squeal that made me reclassify this pokemon as a possible she. "You put sand in my eyes? Is that even legal?"

Both of our trainers ordered us to attack. The paras moved so slow and clumsily that it was no problem to bash him and back up with out him laying a single peeve of virus infected growth on me.

"Man, you're turning into the biggest disappointment sense zubat." This one looked a bit more pathetic too. "Are you sure that we have to fight. I'm pretty sure you could fake faint and no one would notice."

I was being nice but somehow that fired the paras up even more. I guess some people are too prideful to accept advise.

"You've really got to work on your people skills." The clefairy said from the sidelines.

"Who asked you?"

"All right paras, time to unleash our secret attack." The rocket said.

"Eevee get ready to tackle on my order." Lin said.

"Paras, stun spore."

The paras started shaking its diseased ridden back which I've got to say was kind of disgusting. Even worse, the pustules seemed to be leaking what looked like gas into the air. It slowly crept towards me.

"Whoa! Back off eevee." Said Lin. "Stun spore is a paralyzing move."

She didn't need to say anymore. Out of poisoning and paralyzing, the last definitely took a higher place on my oh-crap-o'meter. Eight hours in an immobile state leaves its mark on your psyche.

"What's the plan now?"

"Eevee, I have a berry that will care a paralyze condition but I want to save it for an emergency."

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5…"

"So what I want you to do is run right through the cloud and hit it with all you've got. Just hope you don't get paralyzed."

I held m breath for a second then ran to the paras. The cloud still sparkled in front of the paras who stood there stunned that it even considered fallowing through with this pan. Luckily I hit him out of it instead of running away while I had the chance.

I backed off and waited for the fungus to infect me. Nothing felt different. "Hey, I'm ok!" is what I tried to say but my mouth seemed glued shut. _Crap!_

"It's alright eevee, we'll get through this." Lin was being her usual optimistic self. Mean while I thought about finding a pillow to punch.

"Paras!" the rocket said. "You know what to do!"

I prayed that the paras didn't know what to do but it went unanswered. Evidently 'what to do' meant leech lifeing me to death. It looked like it would be a long and very annoying death.

"Well, it was worth a shot." Said Lin. "So let me guess, you're strategy is to paralyze then gain back all the life you've lost in the time between eevees lose of fluid movement."

"Err… yeah." Said the rocket. "A strategy. Uhm, that' exactly what I have."

"Well it's not going to work." Then in a horrible impersonation of a caring adult, she said, "Eevee smuchem's, be a nice little bitty fella and turn your cute tush around."

I let no paralyze condition get in my way of turning to Lin and saying, "To he-uhymph." Lin had thrown a berry striate into my mouth.

As I chewed Norm whistled, "Nice aim."

I finished, "Are you still here?"

"Yes smuchem's." said the clefairy.

"In a real battle trainers aren't supposed to give items to their pokemon" said the rocket. "It's a rule."

"Like rules ever stopped any of you guys." I said.

"Good point." Lin started scratching her chin in an attempt to play it off like she didn't know exactly what she was going to do. "Well I was saving this trick for the big leagues but I don't see any reason not to try it out on you. Eevee, remember your alphabet?"

"For heaven's sake, you forget a few letters one time and suddenly everyone- wait, is this some kind of reference to that whole attack A/B thing a few days back?"

"Get ready to 'go for it' on m mark."

"Paras, get ready for stun spore."

The paras and I faced each other. We were face to face. We were in each others- ah, forget it.

The paras started boogying again.

"Now!" Lin said.

I leapt back from the paras and turned tail. Then I gave him a face full of sand and judging by the muffled shout the pokemon gave out, something else as well. The paras was paralyzed.

"Cool. Did I do that?" I said. "My sand attack must be getting stronger."

"Ahh! You've blown the spores right back at me paras!"

"Ok, that might be a possibility too."

"Eevee, take it out."

The paras didn't meat the high standards of most of my enemies. One little condition and both he and his master froze while I talked the crap out of him. He must have had a crappy defense or, more likely, my attacks were so powerful that it made short work of him.

"Curse you all!" the rocket grunt recalled his pokemon and took off. "Just wait till I tell the boss!" he yelled back at us.

We just watched him go.

"Hey, I've got a question." I said. "Why don't we ever stop these guys from running off? If we've beat all his pokemon and you've still get some, why don't you just use one of them to stop the rockets from warning the others?"

"There humans." The clefairy said. "They have a pokemon center in every city but only one hotel in the nation. Practical thinking isn't their soup of the day."

"What was all that about? Who was that guy?" Norm said.

Lin informed him of Team Rocket. She gave very precise detail on the battles she had with the two other rocket grunts she defeated. She even told norm about the nidorino incident. I think she even lied about working for the police.

"That's enough." I said.

I was so abrupt that I managed to grab everyone's attention. "Err... I mean, we don't want to give Norm- I mean, all of them our secrets, right?"

"Anyways," Norm said, still looking at me. "I think that we have stumbled on something big here. There's only one thing to do."

"You're right! Eevee let's go!" Lin marched off into the direction the rocket left. "We'll go striate for them and take them all out!"

"No wait!" Norm called out after Lin. "I was going to go to the police!"

"We are the police." I said and took off after Lin.

* * *

"And then he let me go." The grunt said.

_Why do they always let us go?_ The Rocket thought. "Good. She's coming."

"She?"

The Rocket turned his attention back to the grunt. "Why are you still standing here? Go inform the administrator that we've got a situation."

The grunt left in a rush. Other rockets ere looking on curiously. The Rocket had to speak to them or risk losing control of the situation. Everything had to go perfectly.

After the rocket gathered all of his team, he began to outline the plan. They knew it all ready but the Rocket knew that nothing calmed the stupid like repetition.

He gave a quick order and all the members went about their work.

The sonic charges were already set and now he knew exactly were she was. The man with her couldn't be enough to stop what was about to happen. Even if they got to him, the Rocket's new pokemon would destroy them.

_Yes, this time luck and skill have nothing to do with it. I'll crush you with pure power!_ "Now!" the Rocket ordered.

* * *

"Let us catch up!" the clefairy said.

"What? Why can't you waddle faster? We're not going that fast?"

"No, you're not going fast at all." The clefairy said. "I just don't see how that girl can move with such short legs."

I went from lighting quick to self assured racer and looked back. The clefairy was right behind me and his trainer wasn't too far behind either. I looked back up to Lin. She was at least 20 feet ahead of us. _Yeah, this makes total sense._ I could only tell she was there by the thin light reflecting off some metal object on her. _I hope she knows where she's going. What am I talking about? She's no idea where she's going._

BAM!

I froze, too stunned to move. Judging by the fact that Norm and his pokemon didn't run over me, I'd say they froze as well.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Loud explosions echoed through the caves. It was almost defining. _What's going on?_

The echoes died after a while, leaving us in an eerie silence which I broke before something bad could happen.

"Witch needle beetles!" I said.

"Huh?" said the clefairy.

Another defining roar immediately surrounded us.

"No, it didn't work!"

The noise got closer until it surrounded and buried us in what appeared to be a cloud of blue. It took me a while to figure out that I was in the middle of a swarm of zubats.

They didn't do much at first except disorient me with the noise. All zubats were screeching and the noise that their wings made together completely turned me around. That's when all the pain began. One leech life was annoying. Hundreds of leech lives were a problem. I couldn't even defend myself. The attacks were coming from every direction. I tried to tackle but wound up hitting the cave wall.

I started turning in circles, trying to find something or someone to help me. I caught a brief glance of Norm and clefairy together. They weren't fighting but I could see that they were in no position to protect me and Lin.

_Lin!_ She was ahead of us when this happened, alone.

I blindly ran in the opposite direction of Norm. Didn't even consider that I could've used the cave wall to guide me. _I have to find Lin. I have to find Lin._

It was a struggle to even move now. The zubats kept knocking me off course and their constant attacks were draining me of energy. It felt like I was walking through a field of bared wire.

When I had nothing left and only my adrenaline was keeping me going, I felt a foot fall besides me. I was then yanked from the ground. I tried to see who it was as the arms wrapped around me but I was too far from any light to make out a face. Still a strong offensive smell cut through the darkness. _Lin!_

We were mobbing to the light. _That's where Norm and clefairy must be._

Through the torrent of sound I heard someone get out-

"Light."

"-see you-" came a response.

"-no-… out…"

"-where… mean-"

"…douse-"

Then nothing more for a few moments. Then the lamp died. Lin through herself down on top of me. At first I couldn't tell what was happening. Then, a little bit at a time, the sound of the storm distanced itself from us. Then it went completely dead.

"Lin?" Norm's voice came.

"I'm here." Lin's voice sounded a bit scratchier then usual.

"Are you OK?" Norm said.

Lin didn't answer. She left me down on the floor and started to get up. My eyes focused on the now reemerging light. Norm became visible first, fallowed by clefairy. Both were already standing. Norm reached over me to help Lin up. I saw his eyes widen and then his hand jerked back.

I turned to see Lin who was now busily rearranging her scarf. Her face was bleeding. Her beanie was missing so her black hair had stumbled out into the darkness like a fog. It was impossible in this light to tell where the hair even ended. Her cloths looked even worse then usual. Now they sported a number of tears and some pockets were torn right open. She was even missing a glove.

"Lin, are you OK?" I said.

Lin, of course didn't respond. She quickly turned away from all of us. "Let's get going."

"Err… Lin, I-" Norm got cut off.

"I saw a light up ahead before all this happened." Said Lin. "We'll find our answers up there." She took a few steps before stopping. She turned back and kept her eyes on me. She hesitated for a moment then without a word she picked me back up and turned back to the light. After a moment I could hear Norm fallow.

I was glad to be carried. Now that the rush of the moment was gone I realized just how tired I was. High defense or not, I was in no shape to fight. Lin and the rest looked the same way. Even clefairy looked down.

I forgot all fatigue for a few seconds when we entered the light. I was hoping that the light led out doors. Instead it leads to the largest cavern in the cave. Shining rocks were scattered in piles all over. The cavern was well lit but the brightest lights focused in on the boy in back at the center of it all.

The Rocket motioned us down to him. He was completely alone so I guess the humans thought that the odds were in our favor. Personally I think you should always do the opposite of what the bad guy tells you.

When we reached him, he said, "Nice to see you all. Are you enjoying the ride so far?"

"What are you doing here?" demanded Norm.

The Rocket made a tsking sound. "Now, I would have thought that it was obvious."

"He's robbing moon stones from your cave." Said Lin. "Probably to fund his master's organization."

The Rocket clapped. When Lin scowled at him, he said. "No, no. it's sincere. You definitely are every inch the nemesis I thought you were." The Rocket turned to Norm. "Your little group of fools has made it very hard for the poor public to get moon stones. Luckily for a criminal this is an excellent opportunity. Can you imagine what money the world will pay for these rocks? They are the rocket fuel that will propel our organization to the top."

"Like I'd let you!" Norm and his pokemon loaded furious. His clefairy took the stage and got ready to fight.

"Too bad your eevee's not able to fight." The Rocket said. He tossed his pokeball onto the ground between us. The pokemon that emerged took my breath away and not in the good way. It was twice my size and looked like a ball of fluff. It never could be compared to a jigglypuff or a clefairy though. The fur jetting out of it seemed violent. It had a long, naked tail. Two red eyes shone brighter then the light we were in. it opened its fang adorned mouth to screech out, "Raticate!"

"What!" I said. "Someone tell me that isn't the evolution of you-know-what!"

"Yes," the Rocket continued, "I would have loved to get my revenge."

"Careful Norm." Lin said. "This guy looks a little tougher then all the other rocket's I've fought!"

"All the other rockets?" the Rocket said.

"Protect!" said Norm.

"What? You think that you'll actually be successful?" the Rocket said. "Bite!"

The raticate moved fast, way too fast. It brought it's fangs down on clefairies arm. To clefairies credit, he didn't scream. Unfortunately he flinched gibbering the raticate another opportunity to attack. The Rocket ordered the raticate to head butt. The rattacate lowered his head and took aim at the still recovering clefairy. Then the ratticate charged his enemy and launched his to the other side or the cavern. And he wasn't done yet. The Rocket ordered the technique take down to be performed. The ratticat then performed the worlds strongest tackle attack and slammed clefairy into the wall of the cave.

"Metronome!" Norm said. "You have to do it now!"

"Rattacte, to me!" the rattacte was back to his master before the clefairy even got back up. "Metronome, a move that tweaks the brain and let's your pokemon use a move form any pokemon around it. Let's see how lucky you are."

The clefairy started the finger dance of doom. We watched on for a moment. When clefairy stopped, nothing happened.

"Clefairy? What happened?" said Norm.

"I… I don't know." Said clefairy.

"Don't worry about it." I said. "This happens to me all the time."

"Pathetic." Said the Rocket. "Takedown ratacate!"

I'd never seen pokemon move and fall so fast. The ratacte went back to the Rocket. Clefairy just stayed down.

"That was too easy." The Rocket said. "Too bad your luck couldn't save him, girl."

"This isn't over!" Lin hissed at him.

"Yes it is, you can't fight. You can't even run. You're finally mine."

"No seriously." Lin calmly said. She pointed across the cavern. "It's not over."

It was hard to tell who was more surprised, the Rocket because the clefairy was rising, Norm because it looked like his pokemon looked like it hardly had a scratch, or me because I just noticed Lin's nails were in terrible condition.

"No way." The Rocket said. Then he turned to Lin. "OK, I just know you had something to do with this."

"Are you ok clefairy?" Norm said.

"Uhm, yeah. I feel great." Said the clefairy.

"It doesn't matter." The Rocket said. "We've already seen who the stronger pokemon is."

"Then let's go ahead and even the odds!" the clefairy said. Then his whole body lit up. Despite all laws of the conservation of matter, the clefairies body began to grow. Ears got longer and wings seemed to sprout form his back. When he stopped glowing he stood before us a new pokemon.

"By the way, thanks for gathering all these moon stones for me."

"A clefable." Lin said.

"We'll take you apart anyway!" the Rocket said. "This doesn't matter."

"No," said Norm. "This changes everything. Clefable, metronome."

"Testing your luck again? ratticate, bite."

The ratavate moved to the much faster finger dancing pokemon. Unfortunately for him, he had too much distance to cover and clefable didn't need to cover any distance at all. The stopped dancing unleashed a massive sand attack that bathed the raticate in dust.

"Now's your chance," Norm said. "Ice beam!"

The raticate tried to bite an opponent he thought was beside him. His masters warning came too late. The clefable landed behind the raticate and blasted him with a blue beam.

"Now use last resort!" Now it was the raticates turn to hit the cave wall.

"Metronome!"

"Raticate, hyper fang!"

Hyper fang sounded really scary. _I wonder why he didn't use it before?_ I never got to see it though. The raticate seemed to have problems moving, almost like he was frozen in place.

Either way it was more time than clefable needed. When he finished his grand finally, he rushed off stage at such an extreme speed that raticate didn't have time to ask for an encore. He did have time to reacquaint himself with the ground.

The clefable started laughing at the same time as Norm. "I can't believe I just did that."

"Yeah," I said. "That was awesome."

Lin said nothing to them. She just watched the Rocket turn the corner and disappear into the tunnels. "Why do you think we always let them go?"

_

* * *

_

She beat me! She did it! I know she did.

The Rocket thought. _She's ruined me again!_

You see, the Rocket knew people. He knew that the other grunts would be berry eager to roll the dung up hill. He knew that the administrator doesn't like competition. He also knew that he wasn't going to see a promotion for a long time.

* * *

"You look better now." Norm said.

Lin just grunted. She had a band aid on her face, right on her cheek bone. Most other wounds had healed. "What did your gang find?"

"We've got all the moon stones the rockets were gathering." Norm said. "We've also set up watches at night to make sure they don't come back."

"Yeah," I said. "You wont have us to bail you out anymore. Thanks for helping us out though. We couldn't have done it without you guys."

"No problem." The clefable respond for his trainer. "You're right anyways. If it weren't for you two we never would have guessed that this was happening."

"Alright then," Lin got up and took a look around the pokemon center we had spent most of the morning in. "If that's all I'd like to get out of here. See you all later."

"Wait Lin!" Norm said. He reached in his pocket and handed Lin a moon stone. "This is our thanks for your help."

"Yeah sure. Whatever." Lin made for the door. I said goodbye and fallowed her out into Cerulean city.

Once we were outside, Lin said, "What a loser huh?"

"Actually, I kind of like him."

"Alright eevee, let's swing by the gym while were out." Lin said. "I know we had a tough few days but I know that you can beat this gym if you just believe in yourself."

"Not a chance Lin."

**

* * *

**

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**And, of course, by viewers like you.**


	6. The Amazing Aza

**Authors Note:**

**Been a while hasn't it. I've had this one done for a while but never got around to posting it. I'm sure you were all waiting for the next part with eager hearts. Well, all your wishes are granted. Well, no. Just this one.**

* * *

**The Amazing Aza**

Machines made generic machine sounds. The walls had regular looking graphs. The air felt neutral. The whole room reeked of a common life.

_I wonder why so many humans only have one room in their house. These must be poor economic times._

This place was missing something. It needed excitement. It needed innovation. It needed originality_. It needs my touch._

I did not know what the huge machine actually did. That wasn't important. What was important was what it didn't have. What it didn't have was a cog. _At least not anymore. A generic machine deserves to have a generic piece stolen. I'd put all bet's on him being unintelligent enough to come after me instead of simply buying another cog. Humans are far too obsessive._

"What are you doing here?" the human said.

I sighed. _How boring. Such a frequent question._

"Is that my cog?"

_And now he'll say…_

"Give that back!"

_And then I make another easy escape._

I'll give the human credit; no one ever threw a blanket over me in a desperate attempt to seize me. Of course it was utterly futile. When he lifted up the blanket I had already teleported away. After all, I'm an abra. That's what we do.

* * *

The only exciting part of the day, and most of that night, was my wonderful dream. As an abra, I dream of the past, present, and even the future. For those of you underdeveloped readers that means that means that 'see I stuff yuz did, stuff yuz do, 'n stuff yuz goanna do.' That day's dream was without a doubt the freshest break in the doldrums I'd had in ages.

"Fist!"

"Feet!"

"Fist!"

"Feet!"

To keep you from permanent brain damage from straining your imagination, I'll summarize what is happening here. There are two karate masters caring on a pointless argument over appendages. They, like most humans, thought that they were making intelligent arguments by loudly proclaiming their conclusions without any supporting evidence. One had trained his pokemon to use the technique Mega punch while the other had taught Mega kick to his. Now each thought they were superior to one another simply because they were different. _Such simple minds._

One of the green belts turned to another human I hadn't noticed before. "What do you think? Fist of feet?"

"I think your both retarded but please continue." The new human said. Like mareep, the karate's continued.

_Now this is interesting. Who are you?_

This new human was male, maybe in his early teens. He took terrible care of his hair which appeared to have been kept down by massive rubber bands. Not so much curly as disgustingly unkempt. He must have had some skin disease for only his face and one hand was showing. All other surface areas were covered in mismatching winter apparel that was poorly sewn to keep it together. Most of it looked far too big on an eleven year old boy.

_Yes, very interesting though._

"I hope this becomes a brawl." Yet another new voice said. "That's the only way this day could be worth living."

_This is new. What could you be?_

The voice belonged to a pokemon I had never seen before. It was a smallish pokemon covered in brown fur that looked thick and soft. Its ears were almost longer that most of its body, not counting the bushy tail. It also walked on four legs though showed a mussel structure that made walking on two legs for a brief time plausible. The only possible reason said pokemon would do this was to appear cuter while begging for treats. This pokemon looked very adept at doing that.

"When you think about it," the boy said. "Both moves aren't that great. They're normal type attacks that nobody uses because they are mediocre; useless."

"Lin, don't ruin this afternoon by explaining moves that I'll never see anyone use, please." The child's pokemon said.

"I suppose that if I had to choose one," the pokemon sighed as Lin spoke. "I'd choose mega kick. It may not have the power the other has but I'd be able to use it to finish off more opponents."

_There's the most intelligent decision I've heard in a while._ I had been expecting the boy to choose mega punch for its power. It appeared that the human was a higher caliber then the rest.

Then my dream sifted to another boy. This one was dressed in black with an exaggerated red R on his chest and a silly looking hat. His body posture told me that he had either just taken a blow to the ego or had received an actual blow to the gut.

I was disappointed. I had dreams of the Rocket organization before, when it first came to Cerulean. At first I was happy that something had come along to break the monotamy of life. After a while it became plain that these were just your ordinary criminals out for more power. They dressed in funny costumes and shouted the same dumb catch phrases like, "You won't get way with this." Or "We'll get you next time!"

I was about to start trying to shift dreams again when this rocket did a miraculous thing. He started to chuckle in his head.

_His entire body looks like it's just been beat yet he is laughing in his head._ I thought. _He must be a master of self control. Or a sociopath._

The rocket hobbled away. I followed him in my dream. With a little concentration; I picked up his thoughts.

_*And then I'll keep this one too. He's got no more life lives.*_ This boy thought. _*I guess that the only trick now is to catch another. It's not like I can fail with this one.*_

After a quick trip to the locker room to change, the child left the Rocket hide out. He yawned, stretched his arms in the fading sunlight, and let the truth show on his face. With a mischievous grin he said, "So they want a new pokemon to replace that raticate I left behind, do they? Fine. I wonder who the lucky pokemon is."

* * *

The night was uneventful, although I suppose I don't get a lot of action in my six hours of awake time. Yes, an abra gets at least 18 hours of sleep a day. How else can we keep looking this calm and cool. It helps that there's nothing better to do. The only chore I had was to hide the cog.

I teleported to many different areas by the route I lived. All the while I was thinking of my peculiar dream.

_Two interesting children. From when though. They were both in Cerulean and I'm certain both dreams took place in the afternoon. Is it too much to assume that they took place at the same time?_

As I said before, I dream of past, present and future events. I've dreamt of the first mother of Cerulean city disciplining her children for not cleaning their hut. I've dreamt of Rocket activities of the bridge leading up to my domain. I've dreamt of Mistys tryst on the dock with a certain trainer. Sadly, most of my dreams are along the line of children doing laundry, oddishes self pollinating or old humans watching soap operas.

_So boring._

I'm not certain of the rules of psychic dreams. I have come across many other psychic types who all report different scenarios. All I knew was that I didn't truly control the subject of dreams, they are constantly changing. That's why I was especially shocked by that nights dream.

"Here you go, you little cute. Back to daddy!" the nurse said.

"You know," the brown quadruped form last nights dream said, "the only thing that makes all this ok is that she still thinks that you're a guy Lin."

_Incredible!_ I thought._ I'm dreaming of the same people two nights in a row. Please carry on a good show this time. Wait… that's a girl?_

"Thank you mam." The girl said. She picked up her pokemon and started to walk away.

"Question." The pokemon said. "What made you think that I could take all five of them? I remember that you said something that made it seem ok but now I have a hard time remembering. It must have been really good too because in hind sight it seems suicidal."

"Don't worry eevee," the girl said. "I don't doubt your ability. It's just nice to see where you stand every once in a while, even if you can't win."

"Whoa! Wait! You knew that I'd lose?"

"We took out three of them right? And they've been training here for ages. We'll go out to a new route for the next few days and train until we're ready to face them again. And don't forget that we've got to get Misty before we head out of here."

"Is that supposed to get me excited Lin? Really, is that the best pep talk you can give?"

"I've learned that she's a water trainer. That makes things difficult since you've never fought their type before."

"Great. Now I feel much better."

"This isn't even considering the layout of the gym which might be a big swimming pool for all I know. Can you swim?"

"I took the last gym. I think it's your turn to fight and I'll shout advice."

"Of course water is such an extreme offensive power. It will even ignore your defense. We'll have to think on that before we even consider the fact that she probably knows a move I'm unfamiliar with like Brock did."

The eevee screamed. The pokemon center got quiet. The other pokemon and trainers glanced over towards Lin and the eevee. One of the nurses popped out her head and asked if everything was ok. Lin said that her eevee must be hungry.

"Oh!" said the nurse. "I thought a little girl screamed."

"Screw you nurse Joy." Said the eevee.

* * *

"Lin," I made the word sound out into the night. It wasn't a trick I used too much. It was a bit less difficult then teleporting. Still, I needed to practice it just bit more.

I don't know where this new interest came from. Somehow just hearing the name of the girl made me want to say it out load, to talk. Well, as close to talking that you can get by not moving your mouth.

I could have done it the old fashioned way. The draw back is no human would be able to translate Lin from 'abra'. I wanted her to hear it.

_She could have moved on. She may not even be alive. Just because you're dreaming it now doesn't mean that it's happening at the present._

I returned my attention to the present. The man that I robbed the other night was falling asleep. The machine that I took the cog from was still missing said piece. Just like I thought, he had gone obsessive and spent the last few days trying to find the one cog I took instead of buying a new one.

_Time for stage three of the plan._

I teleported inside of the house. I positioned myself on top of the man's computer. After thinking the plan over, I decided to make a slight change.

I formed these words with my mind. "Bill, wake up fool!"

The man called Bill jumped out of bed and started to look around the darkness. I could see him in my mind's eye. He was dressed in pajamas that appeared to come with booties. They were covered with pictures of science equipment like beakers and compasses.

"Bill!" I tried moving the sound away from me, up above us. "Bill!"

Once Bill discovered the location of the sound, his eyes widened and his pulse quickened. His thoughts were easy to read. A voice form the ceiling could only mean one thing in his mind. _Ghost._

_Unexpected._ I thought. _But this works._

"What do you want?" Bill said.

"I come bringing a message from the beyond!" I said.

"I'm listening. Is that you grandpa?"

"Child, wearing those pajamas gives you the appearance of a pathetic lonely man."

"What are you trying to say grandpa?"

"All that's missing is a lonely guy meowth."

"Wait, who is this again?"

"Grandma wants to know why you bought a house with only one room."

"Grandma's alive."

_The game is over._ I used my psychic powers to switch on the light. Bill blinked at the light and then searched the room. When he found me on his computer, his eyes narrowed.

"You." He said.

"Yes, you sad little man." I said. "It's me. How's the machine running?"

Bill dove for me. I appreciated the energy he showed. It almost made up for the 'you' comment earlier. What made the day worth while was the crashing of the computer to the floor.

_Clumsy fool._

* * *

The girl named Lin reentered my dreams.

"What's that suppose to mean?" She said.

"I'm just saying that you're pushing him too hard."

My mind focused on the boy Lin was talking to. He was dressed in a long white lab coat which for some unexplainable reason didn't have a spec of dirt on it. He wore the nerd look like a pro, from the glasses to the black shoes.

"Let's see if I'm strong enough then!" Lin said.

The boy laughed. From their body language I could tell that the two were comfortable with each other. This was no chance encounter. These two were either family or rivals.

The boy tossed a pokeball out to the field. "Go squirtle."

_What a boring choice. _I thought. _Maybe this isn't going to be as interesting as I would have hoped._

"Yo, suds!" said the eevee. "Long time no smell. Have you learned anymore useless moves? I haven't had a bath in a while."

"Wow!" the squirtle shot back. "You've gone from cowering between your trainers legs to insulting me to my face. You must have gotten stronger. Or maybe just stupider."

_Then again…_

"Tackle!" said the two trainers.

The two pokemon rushed each other. Just as the two were about to collide, Lin ordered her pokemon to use sand attack. The eevee twisted around and dug his paws into the ground. For some reason, when confronted with the eevee's rear end, the squirtle hesitated. He stood still long enough for the eevee to blow sand into its eyes. The attack looked so unfair that I would have thought it illegal had I not seen it before.

"Uh, I hate that move." Said the squirtle. "Attacking a pokemon's accuracy has got to be the cheapest trick ever."

"I take what I can get." Replied the eevee.

The boy ordered his squirtle to use bubble. The eevee was told to go right through. When all was said and done, the eevee looked damp but otherwise ok. The squirtle appeared to be completely unharmed.

"My squirtles defense is too high for eevee Lin." Said the boy. "You need to change directions here."

"Thanks for the tip Derf but I think I've got this." Said Lin. "Eevee, sand attack."

The eevee happily did so. The squirtle did nothing. It was waiting for it's trainer to order something. The trainer, or Derf, was studying the girl. He finally closed his eyes and sighed. Then he spoke, "You only have one pokemon don't you?"

"And what if I do?" Lin said.

"Lin, I see where you're going with this battle." Derf opened his eyes. "You seem to have ignored, no, procrastinated in improving your team. Why?"

"I haven't found the pokemon that would strengthen the team." Lin said.

"So you've waiting for Mr. Right?"

Lin blushed. "No. I just don't see the reason to rush anything. I'm strong enough right now."

"No Lin. You're not."

This was not what Lin wanted to hear. "Eevee and I can do anything."

"What's going on here?" said the eevee.

"I don't know." Said the squirtle. "Maybe they forgot about us. We are below eye level."

"Lin," Derf said. "Let this help you improve. Squirtle, water gun."

The squirtle shot water out of his mouth. It nailed the eevee square in the face. He slipped backwards onto his rear end.

"Ah, gross. Was that spit? Discussing."

"Eevee, sand attack till you drop."

The eevee proceeded to do so. His fighting style was easily predictable. He tried to jump out of the path of the water gun while kicking sand into the squirtles face. Eventually the eevee didn't have to dodge at all.

"So what's this lesson Derf? I seem to be winning."

"You haven't caused any damage to squirtle while I've hit his numerous times." Said Derf. "Do you see the flaw in this strategy yet?"

"What do you mean? I'll just take you out slowly while squirtle is flailing in the darkness."

"Is this the secret strategy you used to defeat Brock?" said Derf. "Remember Lin, I had a few secrets as well. Let me reveal them to you."

Derf reached for a pokeball. "Return squirtle."

"What does that mean." Said the eevee. "Does that mean I win?"

Then the intellectual reached for another ball. "Go my friend." The light that came out was larger than most and what emerged was a creature of such power, the likes of which I had never seen. It stood on four thick legs and was taller than any pokemon in the area. While it stood shorter than the humans, the pokemon seemed to intimidate even them. And while appearances are deceiving, I couldn't help but be impressed by the large horn on top of its head.

"No." Lin said softly. "No no no."

"Nidorino," Derf said. "Tackle.

The nidorino bolted to the eevee who appeared to be paralyzed with fear. The poor creature never stood a chance. Two of the nidorinos massive paws smashed into the eevee, sending him rolling to Lin's side of the field. Lin knelt down besides the eevee and pleaded with him to get back up.

"You can't win with just one pokemon Lin." Derf spoke softly.

Then, to the amazement of everyone present, including those spying from a dream, the eevee slowly got to his feet.

_Incredible._ I thought. Then the human Derf voiced my assessment.

"That eevee has an incredible defense." He said. "Simply amazing."

"Alright eevee. Let's finish this fast. Sand attack."

The eevee let out a sad looking sand attack. "Lin, I don't… I'm too tired."

"Lin, do you not understand yet?" Derf said. "You don't even have a real team yet. I, on the other hand, have done nothing but increase my team's power. Return nidorino." With the nidorino safely recalled, Derf sent out another pokemon. "Go raticate!"

The new pokemon was a larger version of a rattata. It didn't scare me but the eevee dropped back to his hind legs.

"No eevee, get up." Lin pleaded.

"Lin, I can't. I can't."

"Not enough Lin?" said Derf. "Then how about this?"

Derf recalled the raticate and sent out yet another new pokemon. This one I was familiar with. It seemed that the eevee was familiar with the new comer as well.

"No, not you." He weakly said. "Leader of the pack?

"Well that's just lovely." Said the growlithe. "Half dead is a good look for you."

The eevee fell down to the floor, probably to keep his legs from shaking.

"Oh, I never got to ask," said the growlithe, gleaming with a violent aura. "How's that jigglypuff?"

The eevee shuddered but did not respond.

"Return growlithe." The growlithe disappeared.

When Derf did not send another pokemon out into the field, Lin said, "What's wrong Derf? Are you sparing us again?"

"That's enough." Derf said. He seemed disturbed by Lin's face. What had started as a friendly encounter had become a hostile. "There is no need to finish this."

Lin scooped up her eevee. She was quiet for a while, and then thanked Derf. "I needed this. Thank you. And I have a present for you too. It's something I left out of my report to the police." Lin told Derf that the nidorino, which I can assume from her tone that she had meet before, had used a move that she was not familiar with. She compared it to a move used by a trainer named Brock in Pewter city.

"So Derf," Lin said. Her eyes glowing and her voice as stronger as ever. If I hadn't seen it, I would have thought that she had won the encounter. "You learn that move. Next time I'll be ready for. No matter how strong you get, I'll beat all of your team with mine."

Derf smiled gently. "Ok Lin, until next time."

As Derf walked away I could hear Lin's mind working furiously. _I'm not strong enough on my own. I need help. I need another pokemon on my team now._

_Oh, _I thought. _Now I see where this is going._

* * *

I had much to do the next day. My sleep cycle had left me with precious little day light. Still, perhaps enough time to confirm my hypothesis.

I tried to recall the area in my dream. Teleporting itself is fairly simple. Teleporting to an area that you've only seen in a dream is something else entirely. It took quite a bit of energy and much focus but I thought that I had it right.

I scanned the area to which I teleported. Then I found that for which what I had been looking, dried paw prints. The mud caused by the squirtle's water gun had frozen the eevee's paw prints into the ground.

"Now." I said. "My visions are taking place in the present. She's in the city right now."

* * *

"Absorb!"

The oddish sapped more energy off of the eevee. Still, it wasn't enough to overcome the eevees tackle attack, even as feeble as it was. The eevee was pleased that he was faster than the grass type. I don't know what was to be proud about. Being faster than a grass type wasn't anything special.

"You're too slow! You can't catch me!" the eevee said. "I'm like lighting. I can just dance around you!"

The eevee tripped on a small rock and found himself eating dust. The oddish laughed and continued to absorb the eevee's hit points.

_Well that was embarrassing. _Thought the eevee. _I'll just leave that part out when I tell this story._

_Not if I have anything to say about it._ I thought.

I turned my attention to Lin. She and another girl were facing off. Sometime between this vision and the last, Lin had decided to put eevee's attack to trial. He was no longer using sand attack. Lin didn't command the eevee at all. Perhaps she was also testing the pokemon's ability to fight on its own. If that was the case, I would have given the furry pokemon a B-.

"Ok." The eevee said while he picked himself up. "That was a nice rest. Now I'm ready to finish you off."

"Ha!" said the oddish, "Are you really trying to play if off like you didn't just fall?"

"No more sympathy, you abnormally large beet!" said the eevee.

"You've been pounding me this whole time."

"I'm sending you to bedy bye land along with all fifteen of your friends!"

"What world do you live in?"

The eevee charged the oddish and gave it a mighty tackle, or as mighty a tackle attack can be.

"Ha! With one hit." Said the eevee.

"But I'm still awake." Oddish said. "I'm just badly bruised."

"I said," the eevee jumped up and down on the oddish. "ONE HIT!"

The oddish was recalled into the girl's pokeball. As she left, she gave Lin a sharp look or, if you were the eevee, whimpered as she limped away.

"That was a bit unorthodox eevee," said Lin. "But good job. Thank you for not using your sand attack. I really needed to test you special defense."

"Ha! That was noting." The eevee said. "I could have taken hundreds of that attack and still had the strength to defeat Misty."

"All right eevee, that's the spirit."

_I think she bought it._ The eevee thought.

"Let's keep going. We're almost to Bill's."

"Who?"

"He'll be able to tell me where to find a suitable pokemon for our team."

"He will?"

"Yep! If you can create a mass-to-energy, online, multinational storage unit, you will definitely know a lot about pokemon."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I've even read somewhere that his favorite pokemon is an eevee."

"That sounds familiar. When did we talk about this again?"

"When he sees you, he'll help us."

"Oh wait, this was all in the prep talk this morning. Now I remember. You're going to pimp me to this guy for advice. How did I let you talk me into this again?"

_So soon?_ I thought. _This is happening faster than I want it to._ It was just a little disappointing. What good was a story if it was over just as soon as it began? _I might need to reveal myself earlier than expected._

The girl moved on but my vision stayed over the same scenery. Just when I was thinking that I would have to spend the rest of my night looking at shrubbery, a rustling bush caught me eye.

_Well, well, well._ I thought. _I had forgotten about you._

The Rocket stepped out into plain sight. He was still dressed in civilian clothing. He also kept up that monologue habit.

"Yes, Bill might know the perfect pokemon for you. Yet, even then you will have to catch it. And I'll be right there."

_Very nice. This just might be the most fun I'll have in my life._

* * *

"Go away!"

"Well that wasn't according to plan." Said Lin.

"As long as you don't through me through the window, I don't think we'll see Bill." Said Ricochet.

"Mr. Bill, are you alright?" said Lin. "Can we help you?"

"Nice change in direction, Lin." Said Ricochet. "Now it's us helping him and not the other way around."

"Shut up! I'm busy!"

"Hey, I'm a big fan. I just need a second."

Ricochet was loving this. "Yeah, great Lin. You've reached the flattery stage so quickly? At least we haven't resorted to violence."

When Bill didn't answer, Lin said, "I'll through my eevee through your window if you don't answer!"

"Whoa! Bill, answer the door!"

The door to the house burst open. Bill nearly ran over Lin in an attempt to get to the eevee. He plucked the startled normal type from the ground and started inspection it. After every possible angle was checked, Bill gave Ricochet strong hug.

"Amazing! Wow, so soft too. What an amazing eevee! Where did you get him? Who are you?"

"Lin, please," Ricochet said. "For the love of Arceus, tell him what he wants to know!"

"My name is Lin." Lin reached out and pried the eevee from Bills death hold. "I've got this eevee from Professor Oak. Think he got it from an eevee farm."

"The one in Celadon no doubt. What a wonderful specimen. Tit's the defense right? I'd say his special defense is excellent as well. Yes, very nice."

"Yes sir, he is a wonderful pokemon but he hasn't been enough lately. That's why I came to you."

"Hum? What? I'm sorry, who are you again?"

"I'm Lin."

"What are you doing here?"

"Like I said, I came to you for help. See, I've got a great eevee-"

"You sure do." Said Ricochet.

"-but I can't go on without more members. Can you help me?"

"Have you considered more eevees?" asked Bill.

"Now you're talking." Said Ricochet.

"Well, I don't really have the money."

"Wait, you want a new pokemon?"

"Yes! Yes I do!"

The scientist smiled. "I have the perfect pokemon for you."

"I've heard that before." Said the eevee.

* * *

_By now Lin will have talked to Bill. _I thought. _The Rocket will have eavesdropped and is now following them._

I put a bow on top of my head. I felt it was a nice retrieve Bill's cog. Now all I had to do was play the waiting game.

I nestled into the tree and fell asleep.

My mind opened up to Lin following Bill through the route. She was having a hard time keeping up with Bill who seemed like he was on a mission. The eevee trailed behind, yelling G-rated swearwords.

"All this work for one pokemon can't be worth it." he said. "Are you listening you physic son of a gun! Show yourself so I don't have to keep walking!"

"Are you sure we'll know which abra's the right one?" Lin said. "They're hard to find as it is."

"Oh, trust me." Said Bill. "This particular abra will make itself known."

"Like heck." Said the eevee. "We've been marching all day."

"Strange for an abra though." Lin said. "They avoid humans. They don't go out of their way to among them much less target a specific person."

"Exactly." Bill was on edge. He had a crazed look in his eye and seemed one step away from foaming at the mouth. "I told you that this was a special abra. People of this city say the same thing. He's one cleaver bas-"

"Jerk!" said the eevee. "Hey, just come out! My feet are sore! I can't do this forever."

From my dream perspective, I noticed them edging closer to my area. _Just around the corner now. Wait, something's wrong._ I placed it. _The Rocket's not here! The best laid plans._

The troop saw me for a few seconds. Each had time to register their surprise. I suppose they should have. It's not everyday you see an abra with a bow on its head and carrying a cog.

_Sorry, not all the guests have arrived._ I thought. _We'll have to do this another time._ I then teleported away.

_How disappointing._ I thought. _Where is that Rocket?_

* * *

"There you are." The Rocket said.

The sandshrew started to prepare itself for battle. Not that it had a lot of hope. It knew that this wasn't a real fight. This was a catch. Before it could even get down to the danger zone, it would be bagged and tagged.

"Go bellsprout!"

_Grunt. _The sandshrew thought. _A grass type. I give it five minutes till I'm caught._

"I need to catch this one bellsprout." The Rocket said. "You know what to do."

The sandshrew sighed. Then it addressed the bellsprout. "So how is he? He sounds like a real jerk."

"Oh, he is." Sid the bellosum. "Just wait till you get the whole story."

"Oh no. is he a monologuer?"

"Yep."

"At least tell me he's a good guy."

"He stole me from his boss."

"Ah shoot. Am I going to be stuck with this guy forever?"

"Don't worry." The bellsprout started to use sleep powder. "You're just a means to an end."

* * *

"Where's that abra!"

"Slow down Lin!" Now both Bill and the eevee were trailing behind Lin.

"I've got to find that abra. No one messes with me like that." Said Lin

_Oh have I gone and made you angry?_ I thought.

"Hey girl!" a trainer stepped out onto the path. He wasn't your average looking man. He was a perfectionist to the core, at lest in his dress. Carefully polished shoes with socks that match the brown slacks. His tie and his button shirt clashed in really charming way. To top it all off, he had brushed his hair into the perfect part. A quick scan into his past reveled a darker side full of angst and drama. Thankfully Lin brushed right past him and kept searching for me. I was very flattered.

_Not yet Lin. He's not here yet._

"Lin," the eevee said. "Doesn't this seem just a little obsessive?"

"Girl!" Said Bill. "Running back and forth through the grass is no way to find a pokemon."

"Oh, he's watching." Lin said. "Abra's sleep most of the day and have visions of their surroundings. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if the little jerk is mocking us right now."

_But you do that so fine on your own._

"Whoa!" the eevee said. "I think I see him!" the eevee stopped to look at an abra on the side of the route. Of course it wasn't me, just some other abra with no other purpose in this plot but to make me seem more unique.

"There he is over there!" Bill said, pointing to yet another generic abra.

Lin spared a glance back. "Those aren't him. He'll make himself know, trust me."

"I don't get it." Ricochet said. "Why do I see all these abras now? I didn't see any before this."

"Great," Bill said under his breath. "She's got tunnel vision."

_True._ I thought. _She's so focused on me that the other abras don't since any danger from her presence._

About that time I felt him, the boy for which I was waiting. _Finally. Let the game begin._

Seeing myself in a dream will forever be odd. For that brief time you can understand most of who you really are, and of what you're capable. It's a far clearer vision than a mirror. Yet for the first time in a while I could honestly say that I was more interested in the two young humans than I was with myself.

"There you are." Lin said. From my vision I could see her triumphant look. Silly of her, considering she should have known that I let her find me.

That thought crossed her mind right about than. After a surprisingly astute diagnosis, she looked around, searching for something or someone.

"You've found him?" Bill had finally caught up. "Why isn't he teleporting away?"

"He wants to have me here." Lin said. "He wants me to try and catch him. He only teleported away last time because something he wanted was missing. There's something big I-"

"You… slow…" the eevee had now caught up. He was panting heavily, which interfered with his speech. Yet another reason that the panting method of sweating is flawed.

"How do you know that he's waiting for you?" Bill said.

"You don't wrap yourself up with a bow and a stolen idem to welcome just anyone."

"Jerk… don't… tele… something…" the eevee was taking this all pretty hard.

Lin studied me for a moment. "Well, I don't know what you're waiting for but I'm-"

"Going to sit back and watch me catch this abra."

_Oh, very dramatic entrance._

The Rocket stepped out onto the playing field. Of course in his civilian clothing you wouldn't even know that he was a member of that awfully boring organization. You would just see a young man in the plainest clothing imaginable.

"Who are you?" Lin said.

"I can't blame you for not recognizing me. I'm usually dressed in black." The Rocket said.

"So you're a goth or something?"

"Screw you!" the Rocket lost his cool in a hurry. Lin seemed to have a particular effect on this rocket. "Don't tell me you don't even have the faintest clue of who I am!"

"Hah." Lin aid. "I'm pretty sure that I would recognize someone with such defining physical characteristics such as yours."

"Forget it. I'm taking the abra."

"Hey, finders keepers kid. I saw him first so back off."

"Kid? Fine, I'll just take you out before I deal with him. Go sandshrew."

"…again…" the eevee said.

_Oh blast._ I thought. _So that's what he was doing._

The Rocket turned around to look at me. "Oh yes little guy. With sandshrews arena trap ability, you won't be able to pull off any of your cute escape tricks. I'll be with you in just a second." He turned back to Lin. "Sandshrew, scratch!"

The sandshrew waddled over and performed one of the weakest attacks in existence. This is why the eevee just took it, and kept panting.

"Ran marathon… need breather… one second…"

"Err, scratch again?" the sandshrew obliged. "Hey dude," the sandshrew said. "Are you going to do anything?"

"I think he's just a little worn out form all the running." Lin said. "You mind giving him a breather."

"What a perfectly reasonable request which I will completely disregard." The Rocket said. "Just take him down sandshrew."

The sandshrew started chipping away at eevee's hit points. And by chipping away I mean taking about a hair thin stamina from Ricochet with every scratch.

"Whoa, that sandshrew sucks." Bill said.

"The attack on that thing must be comparable to a magikarp." Lin said. "Go ahead and take your breather eevee. We'll be here for a while."

_Oh __Arceus__ no._ I thought. _I want this to be exciting. Fine, I'll have to personally handle this._

And with that I woke up.

* * *

"Good morning." I formed the words out of thin air so all would be made aware of my awakening. "Or is it the afternoon. It's hard to keep track."

"It can talk!" the Rocket and Lin said simultaneously.

"Funny." The eevee said, recovering himself. "I was half expecting you to say 'happy birthday'."

"Forgive me for not taking you on a magical holiday adventure Ricochet."

"Hey! You know who I am?"

"Of course I know all of you. I've been watching you for a long time now. I have to admit, I'm very impressed with you all."

"Really!" said Bill.

"Except for you." I said.

"So you were setting this up from the beginning." The Rocket said. "Why go through all this trouble? I hardly think it's because we're interesting."

"Truth be told, I've gotten very bored lately." I sighed. "Every night the same old dreams. Every day the same old gags. You two present a unique opportunity to have some fun."

"How interesting can this be?" Ricochet said. "Now that I'm recovered I'll just take this sandshrew out."

"This is why I'll be leveling the playing field. Prepare yourself eevee."

"Don't worry eevee." Lin said. "Abras don't know anything that can hurt you."

"Oh, but Lin, you forget." I made a long drawn-out bow.

'Unique from all psychics that be,

The unexpected is my specialty.

Yes, no common pokemon or even abra,

For I am the amazing Aza!'

I reached for my one technique not blocked to me and unleashed it onto the eevee.

"Hhurga." The eevee said. "What just happened?"

"Kinesis? Abras know that? Crap, eevee! He's lowered your defense. Sand attack now!"

"Sand attack sandshrew!" the Rocket said.

The two attacks collided in the air, canceling each other out.

"You can't hid by lowering my accuracy this time." The Rocket said. "Let's see how tough your eevee is with out his primary stat."

"Lin I think we're in trouble!" said Ricochet.

"Tackle eevee!"

"Likewise sandshrew."

Claws meet paws as the fight took on new meaning. After a few seconds it became apparent who had the upper hand. Unfortunately another kinesis attack by your truly put the pressure back onto the girl.

"Ah!" said the eevee. "Stop doing that!"

"Not playing favorites are we?" the Rocket said.

"Just keeping it interesting. I said. _She's trained the eevee better than I would have guessed._

Now was the sandshrews time. Cut after cut, the damage was showing on the furry pokemon. Trying as he might, it was now the eevees opponent that had the higher defense.

"This really sucks. Lin, a little help here!"

"Sand attack now!" Lin's response.

"I told you that wouldn't work!" the sandshrews own attack pushed back the eevees. "Burry him sandshrew."

The sandshrew opened up a storm of sand. Now the eevee was on the defense again, trying desperately to keep his opponents sand from reaching him.

"Keep it up eevee' Lin said. "I'm working on something."

Sand collided with sand to cover the whole arena. Like a mini hurricane, the force of such repeated attacks seemed to create a sandstorm which engulfed both sides of the fight.

"Eevee, get ready to just that attack." Lin said.

"Huh?" eevee's voice came from inside the maelstrom. "What attack?"

_Fool._ I thought. _He'll give himself away._

"You know the one eevee." Lin said. "Use that one."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" The eevee said even louder.

_If the sandshrew didn't hear the last one, he definitely heard that._

"The one I told you not to use!"

_Wait, she can't understand what eevees saying. She must have purposefully given vague descriptions in order to get eevee to give away his position._ I studied Lin. She was counting to herself. _No way. Has she already timed sandshrews attack, predicting it?_

"Now eevee!"

A shockwave pulsed through the storm, almost ceasing it completely. The sandshrew came flying out one end, with the eevee right behind.

"Follow it up with tackle." The eevee began to tackle the ground type again and again. Somehow the sandshrews defense dropped during the attack in the storm. He was hopeless. The sandshrew went down hard.

The eevee finished up and looked at me. "All right. You're next. You'd better be worth this."

"Oh, I'm not coming with you. But thanks for the show. This has been fun."

"Hey, I've run halfway across this city for you. What makes you think I'm going to let you go?" Ricochet said.

"You've no choice. Without sandshrew there, I'll just teleport away now. See you-"

A heavy metal object bashed into my face. I started to topple over than felt an unfamiliar tugging. It was as if a fisherman had a hook in every molecule of my body. Before the darkness, I had one brief chance to look up and see the ball.

_An ultraball? Where-_

Darkness took me.

* * *

The Rocket thought back to that day. He was so sure that the abra who called himself Aza would break free of the pokeball. That was till he realized that it was an ultraball.

_That same ultraball that she took from me in that first battle._

It was originally meant to be a present for his initiation to the secret organization. He hated seeing it being used by her.

_But I did like seeing that smug abra's surprised face._

It may not have turned out like he planned but at least he gained back his status in the Rocket organization when he returned with a powerful pokemon. Of course the administrator couldn't do anything about it. He had to grin and pretend to not know whose bellsprout the Rocket had given him. Better to just reinstate the boy instead of admitting to his underlings that he had been made a fool of. The sandshrew was a nice extra as well.

And as for Lin, "Well, there's always next time."

* * *

"I for one, think that this was a waste of time." The eevee said.

"Now, just because the abra doesn't have a damage dealing move now, doesn't mean it's not powerful." Said Bill.

"Don't worry Bill." Said Lin. "I've already got something in mind for Misty."

"We came up all this way for a strong pokemon and now you tell me that it can't do damage." Said Ricochet.

"Yes, well. Thank you for helping me retrieve my cog. I want you to have this it's the least I can do." Bill handed Lin a star shaped item. "I would have given you a ticket to the S.S. Anne but a kid claimed that already."

"No sweat Bill." Lin said. "I hate boats anyways."

"Stop ignoring me!" Ricochet said.

Lin and Bill looked at Ricochet they were shocked.

"That's more like it, you stupid humans. Now, will either of you explain to me how you can expect me the fight besides a pokemon that doesn't fight?"

"Eevee?"

"And my name's not eevee." Said Ricochet. "My names Ricochet."

"Your name's Ricochet?" Lin said.

"Yes, and now- wait, you can… huh?"

_"Oh,"_ I let my voice ring though my audiences heads. _"This is going to be so much fun."_

* * *

_**El fin**_

**There's no audio on this thing so just hum 'A Little Piece of Heaven' as the credits are rolling.**


	7. Divided and Conquered

**Author's note:**

**I'm thinking of doing a cross over between Barney the Dinosaur and Jurassic Park. Tell me what you think!**

* * *

**Divided and Conquered**

_This never gets old._ I thought. I was in the back room of the pokemon center again. _Here I am trying to turn over a new leaf in my life and then I meet another wacko._

The other pokemon was looking at me. At least I thought it was. It's hard to tell with some of these guys.

"So…" he said.

"Yeah." I said.

"You're an eevee."

"Yep. And you are…"

"A butterfree."

"That's right. You come from that worm- uh… cata… something."

"Caterpie."

"You must be a pretty high level pokemon, right."

"No, uh, we just evolve fast."

"That's very interesting."

"By that he means that it's very droll."

Both the butterfree and I looked over at the only pokemon near us. The abra named Aza was looking (again, I'm only guessing here) at us. He kept his face in Zen mode and started talking again.

"He really doesn't care for you at all."

"Hey Aza-" I began. I had a great comeback in mind but unfortunately the bug type decided to talk.

"Is that true?" the butterfree turned to me with must have been an injured look.

"Now don't you get started." I said. "We barely know this guy. How do you know he's telling the truth?"

"I didn't hear a denial in there." The abra said. "Did you?"

"It's true! You think that I'm a loser pokemon!" the butterfree was not helping this situation. We were in a small space so our voice already started to attract the attention of the other pokemon in the room. The last thing I needed was to go back to dealing with hundreds of angry pokemon at once.

"How did we get to loser from boring? I'll admit that I would have rather not began a conversation with you but I wouldn't call you a loser. Heck, I spent hours trying to knock out your other evolutions." _That wasn't cleverly put together. _I thought. This was all happening to fast. My mind seemed to be in a fog.

"So in other words, the eevee doesn't like you because you're a butterfree. Had you been a caterpie it would have been fine." I'd only known Aza for a short time but I can already tell that the hardest part of our partnership would be not fighting him.

"I'm just as strong as any other member of my family. I'm just different." The butterfree was taking this way to personally.

"I'm sure you are, I'm just- hey! Are you crying?"

The butterfree flew to the opposite side of the room. The other pokemon in the room gave me dirty looks. _Well, at least they aren't trying to kill me._

"You know what," a particularly big sandshrew said. "I think that he wants us to kill him."

"Whoa! Hey, I'm sorry. It's not that big of a deal right? Hey, stop looking at me that way. You should all really stay on your beds. I don't think that the nurses… NURSES! NURSES! COME IN PLEASE!"

A sharp tug from the inside of my body pulled me out of the room, through the walls and out of the pokemon center all together. It happened so fast I didn't even know what had happened until I came to rest on a street corner over looking the pokemon center.

I looked over to see Aza beside me. "Don't try to sit there all innocent. I invented the innocent look."

The abra said nothing.

"Yeah, what ever. This in no way makes up for setting me up like that."

"If you say so."

_This guy is kind of creepy._ I thought. _I can't tell if he's looking at me or not. I don't even think that we've had a real conversation yet._

"Would you like to have a real conversation, Ricochet." Said the abra.

"Whoa. It's like you read my mind." I said.

"… This is going to be more fun than I though." said Aza.

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing. Why didn't you express yourself while you were in the safety of the pokemon center?"

"What?"

Aza sighed. "Let me see. How would you put this? Ah! Why didn't you diss those monsters back at the PC when you had the chance?"

"Oh I'm glad you asked." I drew myself up. "A while back I had a life changing experience. Since then I have decided to treat other pokemon nicely." I waited for Azas approval. Unfortunately, he just made everything more complicated.

"So you don't say what you really think of them?" Aza said.

"Yes. That makes me a better person."

"Interesting. However, doesn't that make you a liar?"

"Uh… I guess so."

"So not only are you still a bad pokemon, you picked up a new bad habit."

I was silent.

"That bad habit is lying by the way."

_Ha! A new bad habit. Shows what you know._

"Any ways," Aza said. "What do you think of Lin?"

_That's right._ I thought. _Aza can use big words but at least I'm an expert on Lin._ "She's an ok trainer. Best I've had at least."

"Please tell me that was pathetic attempt at a joke."

"Huh? Oh yeah. Sure it was." _Whoa. That was a close one._ "Well, I guess Lin's good at picking out neat strategies. She's kind of a jerk to other humans that she's fighting. She never seems to pick fights with adults though. She doesn't get hot either. I wonder how she dose that."

"Are you talking to me or are you having a private conversation?"

"Oh! Sorry. I guess I'm not use to having a friend…"

Aza gave the slightest hint of an eyebrow raise. You know, if abras had eyebrows.

"Err… partners… companions… coworkers…"

"Try acquaintances."

"Yeah. That's right."

"Is that it then?"

"Uhm, you have great skin, acquaintance."

"No, I was referring to Lin."

"Ah. Yeah, Lin's great. I guess."

It was clear from Azas expression that he was not impressed. This was the easiest of Azas expression to learn. "I take it Lin and you don't communicate very often."

_She certainly seems to think that we do. After all, she's always talking to me and listening to what I say. Of course she doesn't understand a word I'm saying but responds anyways._ "That's why you're here, right. You can translate for us."

"There is more to communication than understanding one another's words." Aza said. "Actions will show wither or not you are together or divided."

"And that matters because…"

"If you're divided, you'll be conquered."

I snorted in my mind. _Wow. I guess this guy's not as smart as I thought he was. What a dork. Is that supposed to be a deep thought or something?_

_I need to be taught a lesson._

I blinked and tried to clear my mind. _Did that thought come-_

"There you two are."

The abra spoke first. "Lin, I must confess that our budding relationship would be strengthened were we to avoid visits to such places."

Lin hesitated for just a moment. "I asked around the pokemon center about physic pokemon reading and speaking into each others minds. There are some rumors but no one reliable said anything about this strong of a voice."

"Normally we don't do this because the mind isn't worth the effort." Aza said.

"Ah, thank you abra." Lin continued to walk to us.

"Brown noser." I whispered under my breath.

"Considering that your entire body is brown, that may not have been the wisest comment."

_This is going to be harder than I thought._

When Lin reached us, she pulled out a pokeball my heart jumped until I remembered that I wasn't the only pokemon anymore.

"Aza was it?" she began. "How is this going to work?"

"Yes," Aza said. "I suppose that the basics must be covered first. I have no qualms over staying inside the pokeball during times of travel. I should be able to continue translation as well as other physic functions without leaving the pokeball. As I'm sure you know, I require 18 hours of sleep a day but I shall still remain unhindered. Accommodations for food I will leave to you as I see that you have done an adequate job with the eevee."

"Are you joking." I said. "You dare call that garbage, food? I think I'd rather starve."

"Do you hate it that much?" Lin said.

_Oh gosh! She can understand me!_ "Err… Well, yes. I don't like it."

Lin's face changed, just for an instant, and then she was back. Still, I saw it. She looked hurt. "We'll talk about it latter." She lifted the pokeball in her hand and recalled Aza.

_What was that about?_ I though. _It's not like I said anything bad. _

_Nah, you just got to forget it Ricochet. It was nothing._

…_Wasn't it?_

* * *

"A water type gym." I said.

"Of course." Aza said. "That's what I just said. Have you noticed that you have a habit of repeating others statements at odd times?"

"No, I don't think that I have noticed it before." I said. "Anyways, I've fought a few water pokemon before. They're no big deal."

"If I can make a small correction," Aza said. "You've fought one water pokemon three times. You've never defeated said water pokemon nor have you ever been in the same realm of defeating him."

"That's one way to look at it." I said. "How do you know that?"

"I don't think that understand the sheer offensive capabilities of this type."

"It's alright. I'm pretty much indestructible."

"Your physical defense maybe. Your special defense remains untested."

"Special defense?"

"Yes, it measures your ability to endure special attacks."

"Special attacks?"

"Yes, attacks that- oh, forget it." Aza looked over to Lin. "She seems to be a competent trainer. Perhaps we will be successful despite the obvious deficiencies in the team."

"Don't be so hard on yourself Aza. I'm sure you'll do fine."

Aza sighed. _He seems to do that a lot._ I thought. _He should take deeper breaths._

I gave my surroundings a quick check. We were on route something or other for training. _Humans have such terrible imaginations. They name all the cities creative names and then go and name all the streets after numbers. What have numbers ever done for them? Hum, than again why name a city after a spice? Or a color? If I had to name a city it would be called grapes. Yum, grapes. I wish I had grapes. Wait, I hate grapes? Am I so desperate for good food that I would really go that far?_

The incredibly disturbing sound of Lin clearing out her throat got me to pay attention. Then I saw what she had been working on. _Of course. I should have known that it was only a matter of time before we met again._

Standing before me was my evil grass twin. "So you are the reason I'm here. Very well, we shall do battle."

"You've got to be kidding me." Aza said. I checked what he was looking at. Then I saw the rather pudgy grass abra.

"Oh, no! They have learned to spawn."

"Do you really expect me to fight this?" Aza said.

"Well, yes. That's the idea." Lin said. "This way we get to know the names of your different attacks. It's recommended in all the books."

"I'm an abra. I don't have any attacks."

"Wait, really?" I said. "Then how do you battle?"

"I have never truly battled." Aza said.

"What? Never?"_ Wait, maybe I can use this to my advantage._ "So I'm the most experienced member of the team. Don't worry; I'll take you under my wing."

"Something you're incompetent at? I guess we'll learn together."

"Lin, is it ok if I battle the grass abra?"

"Alright, enough of that." Lin said. She rubbed her head. "You two are giving me a headache. We all have to work together you know. That's what a team does."

"Why do I have to work with the abra?" I said. "It's not like we'll be on the battle field together."

Lin didn't seem to like that remark. "Of course you don't work with anyone. You are just the best, right? You're Arceus's gift to pokemon."

"Gezz, think that you're just overreacting just a little bit Lin." I said. "You're mood swings lately have been giving me a headache. In fact I feel one coming on right now."

I really did. My mind was numb, as if someone had just yelled right into my ear. I couldn't even follow up on my rant.

Lin shook herself and then said, "Well then, let's get all that aggression out of you. Aza, we're going to run a mock battle against Ricochet."

"Gezz, Lin." I said. "I just said I'm not feeling well and you're response is to do an exercise? You've got to learn to listen."

Lin ignored me. _It's like she didn't even hear me._ I thought through the fog in my head._ Any what was with that aggression remark?_

_That is not important right now Ricochet. Instead, why not focus on the task at hand._

_Yeah, _I thought._ Now's my chance to show that abra who's the lead dog around here._

"Ready, set," Lin said. "Go."

"Wait," I said. "Were the 'ready' and the 'set' questions? Should I have answered?"

"Ricochet!" Lin pointed behind me.

So instead of looking there, I looked to where Aza was a second ago. Of course he wasn't there anymore. I had just enough time to think,_ oh, duh,_ before I felt someone flick my tail.

"If I did know an attack," the abra said. "I wonder who would win."

"I would!" I twisted around to tackle Aza. I hit nothing but air. I saw him off behind Lin. "Hey, no fair! I can only hit you if you stay in one place."

"Hence the teleporting." Aza said.

Lin sighed. "If only that were legal."

"What do you mean?" Aza said.

"The pokemon league doesn't allow teleport to be used that way. You have to stay within the field of play."

"Who came up with that idiotic rule?" Aza said.

"I think the entire elite four did to stop Sabrina from kicking their butts." Lin smiled and then said. "So I guess you can say that you're too awesome for your own good."

"That's not comforting Lin." Aza really seemed put out by this. I guess I would be put out if I had just learned that my most powerful attack was illegal.

_Oh wait, it is._

"Stop being a big baby." I said. "I can't use my best attack either."

"And what attack would that be?" Aza said. "Is it something really unique to your species? Oh, I know! It's the ability to run away from danger, isn't it?"

I ran towards Aza and prepared my steel tail technique. The fur on my tail thickened until it felt like I was dragging another eevee behind me. When I reached Aza, I turned around to introduce my illegal move to his face. Then, nothing.

"Ah, steel move. So that's how you managed to defeated Brock." I spotted Aza off to the side of the field. "I should have known that you had to cheat to win a gym badge."

I ran to him. _He'll just teleport behind me. I need to figure out where he'll go next._ I reached Aza and got ready to tackle. _Left?_

_No, right!_

I threw myself to the right and… missed. "Gezz, no wonder you never learned an attack. You're already great at running away."

"Look who's talking." Aza said from my left.

I twisted around and unleashed my sand attack then decided to slowly rotate around and fill the area with sand. "Can't dodge my sand attack if there's no where to teleport."

"Ach!"

_Did I get him?_ I turned around and caught sight of Lin gagging on sand. _Uh oh._

"Wonderfully done." Aza appeared next to me. "So who won?"

"All right." Lin dusted herself off. "I think that's enough."

* * *

"This is punishment isn't it?"

"No, it's not. This is the next step." Lin said.

We stood in front of the Cerulean City gym. Lin had somehow convinced us all to go to the gym. Flashes of my last gym fight went through my mind. _Will this be easier this time? Aza can't even attack. He can take a beating though. He's like a living pillow._

"I most certainly am not!" Aza was in his pokeball but doing that creepy projecting his voice out of the pokeball.

"Did I say that out loud?" I said.

Lin looked down at me and shrugged. Then she opened the gym door and we entered a giant swimming pool.

"Wow. This is different." I said.

"What do you mean?" Lin said. "This looks just like a rocky maze to me."

"Oh sarcasm, neat trick Lin. When did you learn to do that?" I said.

She gave me another weird look and stepped further into the gym. That's when the noise hits me. The last gym that I visited was quiet compared to this place. Aza explained it to me latter. I guess that it's a science thing. See, a large empty space traps sound and make's echoes or something. Whatever caused it, I felt like I just walked into a wall of sound. That wouldn't have been so bad except that the wall was made out roars of defeated pokemon, slaps of bodies hitting the water and shouting trainers.

"Whoa!" I looked over to Lin. "Why are we doing this again? All motivation has just lost me."

"You're scared?" Lin said.

"What? Of course not! I'm just worried that you're not ready for…" I desperately searched the arena for an excuse. "Uhh… being underdressed."

That earned a weird look from Lin and a sharp bark from Aza. It was partly true. The entire pool was filled with humans wearing- no, the better way to put this is not wearing. Yes, they were not wearing clothing. Oh, there may have been a few scrapes of skin tight clothing thrown in strange places but nothing that could be taking seriously as actual clothing. It made an odd comparison with Lin, who is covered from head to toe. It made me think of an eevee getting completely shaved. That's when my imagination started to creep me out and I tried to say random things to distract myself.

"Is the pool filled with cheese?"

"What conceivable reason could you have for saying that?" Aza of course. He's the only one in the team who can use a word like 'conceivable'. He's definitely the only one of us that knew what it meant.

"So, I never thought to ask," Lin said as we started to walk closer to the pools edge. "Do any of you swim?"

"Of course." I said. "It's an activity at the eevee farm."

"Sorry." Aza said. "I never saw the need to learn."

Well you don't have to pass a golden opportunity like that in front of my nose twice. I mustered up my most condescending voice and said, "Oh, poor Aza. Lin, I'll take this gym. I wouldn't want Aza to have to admit that he don't know everything."

"I just might take you up on that." Aza said.

We got to the pool's edge and I looked over. _Gezz, that's a lot deeper than the pool back home. Maybe I should eat my murkrow._

"Hey, what are you wearing?"

I couldn't figure out where the voice was coming from at first. Then I spotted a boy swimming over to us. It was hard to tell through the water but it looked like he wore nothing but a tiny pair of shorts. He was a decent swimmer. Maybe if he wasn't wearing those stupid looking glasses I would have taken him more serious.

"You can't swim in that!" he said. "How are you going to coach your pokemon if you can't get in the water with them?"

Lin let out a little growl then said, "Gezz, what a wonderful observation. I can't believe that I've come to the gym so unprepared. Oh no wait, what is this coming out of my mouth. Words? Hum, maybe it's possible to raise my voice so that my pokemon will be able to hear me?"

The kid was so taken aback from the sound of Lin's bizarre voice, that he didn't realize that he had been insulted. "Err… well; this gym is all about swimming. Why not match the theme."

"Even I think that's a weak argument." I said.

"Coming from Ricochet, that speaks volumes." Aza, of course.

"I'm pretty sure the theme here is water." Lin said. "Maybe I'm dressed this way to prevent hypothermia."

The boy thought about that for a moment. "I think that I've learned that the best way to recover from hypothermia is to take off all your cloths."

"Why would that even work?" Lin said.

"Why would we even be in that situation?" Aza said. "I doesn't snow in the whole of Kanto."

"Enough of that." Lin said. "Are you going to fight me or not?"

The boy quickly remembered his purpose in life, and held a pokeball out of the water. "Go magikarp!"

"Where was he keeping that?" I said.

"Eevee, go!" Lin said.

I was slightly annoyed that Lin didn't use my name. After all she knew it now. _She's just still trying to get use to it. It's ok._

_No, Ricochet. She should know better. She's supposed to be your trainer._

I shook my head clear and said, "Alright, water fight, take one." I dove into the water.

I immediately realized my mistake when I couldn't touch the bottom. _Gezz this is deep. _And then the cold hit me. "Ahh, why don't they heat this thing!" While I was speaking, the water got into my mouth and the waters taste hit me. _Whoa! This is nasty beyond belief. Do they bathe in here?_ It hit me that they probably did a lot more than that in the pool. _I think I'm going to through up. _That's when the magikarp hit me.

"Ow! Or… wait, that wasn't so bad." I said.

"This is a good opening battle for you Ricochet." Lin said. "Magikarp are recognized as the weakest pokemon in existence."

"At least he has an attack." I said.

"Oh, yes." Aza said. "Let us rehash that topic."

"Ok Ricochet," Lin said. "Don't go after him, let him come to you. Just try to keep him in front of you."

Like most of Lin's advice, this was easier said than done. While I admit I was never the best swimmer at the eevee farm, twisting around to splash the eevee behind me was a hard earned skill. Despite being in his natural element, I think I could even out swim this magikarp which I realized was the hideous pokemon in the water bowl form a few days ago.

_Be nostalgic latter. Focus on the now._

The magikarp didn't swim. The fish kind of towed itself to me. Once it got to me, it taped me on chest. Then it just bobbed there. This was great because I couldn't quite figure out how to do a tackle attack in the water.

After a few minutes of struggling, the peanut gallery started to offer advice.

"Kick with all paws and push down with your tail." Lin said. "Be sure to hit the magikarp with your chest."

"Do a summersault in the water." Aza said. Although how he could see me was a mystery.

"Try to get out of the water and flop back down." The swimmer boy said.

"I want to know how you'll manage to do a sand attack." The magikarp said.

I decided to go with Lin's suggestion. Thankfully she did know what she was talking about. It wasn't the most spectacular tackle attack in the world but it did do a ton of damage.

"See, like I said." Lin said. "Not the strongest pokemon is it."

I wanted to take full credit for what had started off as a resounding victory, but I had a feeling that she was right. This pokemon looked like an overripe orange. It felt like one too.

I got ready for another tackle attack when I saw that the magikarp was still in front of me. I glanced around, looking for something I was missing. _This is a trap, right?_ I glanced at Lin. She just shrugged. I tried to sigh, swallowed a ton of nasty water, spit it out, than attacked the magikarp again. It fainted.

_Hum, kind of a let down. _I thought._ I was thinking that this would be another Brock._

"So you're just the welcoming comity, right?" Lin said. "Most of the other trainers in here are probably a lot more powerful than you."

The boy looked offended. He was about to open his mouth when another voice cut him off.

"What a wonderful display. Yes, I've never seen such a stupid fight."

I twisted around to figure out who would dare say that anything I did was stupid. The voice was coming from someone outside the pool. I looked up as much as I could and saw her. Well, actually I saw her hair. The rest came later. The hair was red, the first human with red hair I had ever seen. It was tied near the top of her head. All of it was wet but for some unexplainable reason was still standing striate up.

"Misty." Lin said.

_Ah, crap._ I thought.

Misty only gave a sniff and ignored Lin. Instead she looked over at me. Her face twisted at the sight of me than turned back to Lin. "A normal type? Really? That's what you come up with?"

_Geez, _I thought. _What an aragent- what a total- what a… dang, I haven't learned any words strong enough._

"At least he's not grass or electric, right?" I guess that this was Lin's way of being nice. Kind of weird, I didn't think Lin did that kind of thing.

"ELECTRIC!" It must have been the wrong thing to say. "Ever since that brat and his little pikachu came through here, everyone thinks that this is the weakest gym in the whole of koata. It's not my fault he had my weakness. Water pokemon only have two. How can I be expected to beat a pikachu who defeated Brock's onix? Onix is a ground type for heavens sake!"

_Brat!_ I thought. _Well, no, close, but that's still not as strong as I want. No you're more of a… shoot; it's on the tip of my tongue._

"You're mocking me aren't you?" Misty had returned her attention to me. "You're not even close to being ready to fight me, you weakling type."

"Well, I still think we could try." Lin said. "It might be nice to get your confidence back."

Misty looked shocked. "You BI-"

_Oh there we go!_ I thought. _That's what I was looking for._

Misty marched over and grabbed a pokeball off one of her posy. "I have all the confidence I need!" She tossed the pokeball into the pool. "I don't even need my own pokemon against a weak sauce like you!"

"You yell way to much." I said. I watched the pokeball sink to the bottom of the pool. "I wonder who has to dive down and get that."

"Shouldn't you be paying attention to me?"

I looked up to face the pokemon of the day. He looked like a girl.

"Let me guess, water pokemon?" I said.

"A goldeen, yes." He wasn't really paying attention though. He had just realized that it wasn't his trainer bossing him around. "What's happening here?"

I fought the urge to make a comment on this cross dressers intelligence. It turned out that I didn't need to.

"Now listen fish." Misty said. "I know you're not the smartest pokemon in the sea but if you listen to me you can beat this weakling."

"Now who can pass that opportunity up." The goldeen said.

"What did I ever do to you?" I said.

"Goldeen, horn attack." Misty said.

"Eevee, get ready to flop!" Lin said.

_Gezz, not the most encouraging choice of words._ I thought.

I was shocked at the speed of goldeen in the water. While the magikarp was just bobbing around, the goldeen could actually swim. My doggy paddling had nothing against this.

I remembered Lin's advice and began to get ready to tackle. I definitely couldn't strike first but I bet I could do more damage than this pansy. So of course I was wrong.

"Aaahh!" the goldeen's horn felt like it poked a pencil size hole right through me.

"Why aren't you attacking eevee? Come on!" Lin yelled.

_All right already, lay off!_ I thought.

I flopped. Literally. My ferocious tackle attack completely missed. The only thing I managed to do was get a good look at the water type swimming away. Then goldeen twisted and started from another side.

I started working my way to keep the fish in front of me. Then I saw that the dumb thing was moving way to fast. I did the only thing I could think of. I pushed my body completely out of the water. The goldeen came underneath me. Luckily it stopped just long enough to say "Wha…" and that was all I needed.

"Tremble before the terrible tenacity of this tackling tyrant!" I said. Then I side flopped the goldeen. He wasn't as squishy as the magikarp but I could live with that.

_Now cue the fan section._ I thought. But Lin didn't say a word.

_See, she doesn't even care._

I felt my headache starting to come back. "All right Ricochet, let's focus."

"That was unfair." The goldeen said. "That's not really a tackle attack."

"You want to talk about fair?" I said. "Next time let's do this on land."

"Cute girl, but it will take more than one lucky hit and friendship speeches to defeat me." If I thought Misty was angry before, than I'm sure glad I couldn't see her face now. Her voice was as scary as Lin's usually was. "Goldeen, misses I can accept. Taking damage will put you next to a side of fries."

The goldeen turned a lighter shade of gold. Then he took off to the side and came around at me.

"Ricochet, do something." Lin said.

"What kind of advice is that?" I said.

"Just trust me." Lin said.

_I can right?_ I thought. _Lately, thing have been kind of weird between us Lin. It's like we've been divided._

I watched the goldeen getting closer. I had no idea what to do with Lin's advice. _Let's see, he'll be expecting me to go up, so…_

I let out all the air in my lungs and kicked my self under the water. After that I immediately kicked back up. I felt the slimy body of the water type on top of me but I didn't stop there. I pushed the goldeen out of the water.

My lungs were burning and my muscles were sore. Exhaustion was creeping up on me but I knew that I wasn't done just yet. I had to time it perfectly but I managed to push my self out of the water to slam the incoming goldeen.

"Hah! If that's not a critical hit, I don't know what is." I said.

"Not exactly what I had in mind, bu-" Lin said.

_How unappreciative._

_Yeah, I'm doing my best here._

"Ok," the goldeen said. "That was totally a dive attack. Is anyone following the rules here?"

"Why are you talking?" Misty shouted. "You wanted a fight? Do you want to see how brutal the pokemon league is girl? Goldeen, supersonic!"

I think Lin tried to say something then. Unfortunately, I couldn't hear her over the boom coming from the goldeen. _Boy and I thought I had a head ache before._ I thought. What was going through my mind now was pure agony. I couldn't even think striate, totally confused.

I thought I heard Lin trying to order me around. Something like, 'get your act together' or 'move it you stupid pokemon'. Hopefully it was the first.

_Weird,_ I thought. _That doesn't sound like Lin. The voice isn't right._

Maybe I should have figured it out right then but like I said my mind was all twisted around.

I tried to get myself back into position. The only reward was getting bashed in the through.

"Ugnh!" _Can't breath! I can't breath!_ Panic started setting in. I hadn't lied when I said that I could swim. I just left out the part about how I couldn't swim very well. And now that I was out of my element, out of air, with screaming voices in my head, fighting a pokemon I couldn't even see-

I got bashed in side. _Or was it my head. No, now I'm getting bashed in my head._

Let me tell you something, you never want to get bashed in your head. The last moment before I faded away, I had a brief moment of clarity. In that moment I knew that I was missing something. _What's happing to me?_

* * *

That night I had the weirdest dream.

"It's not the pokemon's problem. The problem is in the human." I turned around to see a boy, all dressed in blue, coming up the path to us. "Its kind of sad to see a pokemon stuck with such a loser." He said.

_Phft! Is that the best he could come up with? Somehow I don't think we'll have too much of a problem defeating this nincompoop._

_Ugh, do I really have to rehash this. I hoped that I never have to see this guy again._

_Yeah, too bad._

"Ricochet must have done something awful to grandpa to deserve you. Or maybe it's just weak."

_Ha! Well, I may have underestimated this young man._

I bristled my fur and gave the human my famous look of death.

_Oh, very ferocious, Ricochet. You should have taken up acting._

Lin said, "Blue, you grandson of a manke's rear end, what are you doing here? You followed Ricochet here, didn't you?"

_Blue? And this boy has professors in his family? Maybe it skips a few generations._

_Nah, I don't think that the professor is for really either. Seriously, have you ever heard of a pokemon university? What are this guy's credentials?_

"All right human!" I said, "Just you wait, I'm going to give you a matching slight bruise!"

"I was just coming here to head off Green,"

_Ha! I never thought that we'd top Blue so quickly._

"But I think I have enough time to take out the trash." He grabbed a pokeball from his waist. "After all, I don't want another person interfering between me and Green.

_Such poor grammar._

_I don't think he needs it._

"Go pidgey."

"What! You already have two pokemon!" Lin said.

_Yet it took you, what, a month? Just a tad slow._

I ran towards the forming pidgey.

_Oh man, he's going to use sand attack. I hate sand attack._

"Sand attack!" the pidgey moved its wings and sand consumed me.

_I'm already bored._

"Sand attack," Lin said. "It will lower your intelligence by a percentage. It shouldn't be much."

_Ha! Now that's rich._

_I don't get it._

_No, I suppose you wouldn't._

I ran toward the pidgey once the dust settled. It was to my right, just out of reach. Just like most of my opponents.

_That's not true._

_Oh, come off of it, you know it's true._

"Too slow! Pidgey, sand attack and dodge right!"

Sand hit my face and I lost sight of my opponent.

_No joke here?_

_Nah, this should be humiliating enough._

I tackled to my right. To my dismay I saw the pidgey to my left instead.

"That's good eevee! Just remember that he'll go to his right, not yours!" Lin said.

Blue laughed, "You're congratulating it for a failure? No wonder you only have one pokemon. You could never get even one to respect you like that!"

_Hum. Now that's not exactly true, is it? I wonder what you will do when you meet me._

"Face it Lin, a little girl like you should have stayed back at the orphanage. Sand attack!"

_Orphanage? Now that is interesting. It's a shame that her mind is so tight. I would rather see this a little clearer. Most likely she has a better memory as well._

I tried to tackle again but once again sand stopped me from touching him.

_Yeah, because sand is known for its viscosity._

What's worse is that some of it stayed in my eyes every time.

_That would be the objective of sand attack._

"And a little boy like you should have stayed under your daddy's wings. Although you may not be a boy come to think of it. Are they still far up there?"

"You witch! Do you have any idea how bad that hurt?"

_Ha! Wonderful. I'm beginning to enjoy Lin's mind._

I ran towards the pidgey again. When I got to the area where I knew the pidgey was, I jerked my butt around to perform tail whip. Nothing.

Sand slammed into my side. Covering me again.

"Good try Ricochet! Just keep trying to use tackle." Lin again.

"That's not working!" I said. I tried to blink the sand out of my eyes but it was useless. "I was already trying if you weren't paying attention. It doesn't seem to be getting me anywhere!"

_Wow. I was kind of a jerk._

_It's too bad you can only admit that in your dreams. If you were more bearable, I wouldn't have to be so hard on you._

I tackled and missed again, more sand followed. I couldn't see anything now. I had no idea where the pidgey was.

"You little… you won't get away with that. Pidgey return! Go charmander!"

_Ah, I hate this part._

_Oh, a charmander! This will be a wonderful battle. I can't wait to see you get thrashed._

_Wait, this is my dream. I can do what ever I want!_

"Oh! Ricochet, I'm so afraid! I've had nightmares of our last fight when you totally put me in my place. Please show mercy?"

_Wait, what are you doing? This didn't happen._

"It's alright Ricochet." Lin's voice came from the left. "I always said that you could defeat any pokemon blind folded. You're so awesome!"

"I'm totally here for you man." Aza said. "Wait, I wasn't even there. And I don't talk like that."

"I thank you for your support." I said. "Now marvel at my true power!"

I turned my attention to the battle field again. "Now prepare to be dazzled."

"You lost didn't you." Said Aza. "Now you're just trying to cover it with a bunch of yummy food that I'll give you when you win. That's because you're so cool. NO! Stop putting words in my mouth!"

I tackled the red pokemon.

"Oh no." said BlueXmachina of the future apocalypse. "You are just too powerful Ricochet."

"Oh no, eevee behind you!"

I turned to block a dirty attack from charmander.

"He was right in front of you. You just attacked him." Aza gasped, totally awestruck by my brilliant dodge. "No I'm not. And you didn't dodge, you blocked. Can you at least stay consistent?"

"Ouch! It hurts! It hurts!" Charmander started to cry.

"Now do you see why you never stood a chance?"

When I saw this-

"Ha! You're blind right now, remember?" Aza said.

When I sensed this, I unleash my ultimate attack.

"It's so beautiful." Lin said.

The abra shed a single tear. "You've got to be kidding me."

"It's over."

"Thank goodness." Aza said. "Please wake up now."

* * *

"Uhgra…" After a bit of a struggle, I got myself up. "What a dream."

"I sincerely hope that your morning goes quite the same."

I looked over to Aza. He was still sleeping, but I guess that hasn't ever stopped him from talking. Not much dose.

"No, I was being serious." Aza said.

"All right team." Lin decided to grace us with presence. "I know that we had a hard time yesterday, but that's because we were divided."

"Yeah, divided and conquered." I said.

"Most definitely." Aza contributed.

"I seem to be getting my butt kicked a lot lately." I said. "First it was clefairy, then the bridge battles, then Derf, then Misty, then, uh, then…"

"Wrote yourself into a corner there, Ricochet?" Aza said.

"Wasn't another pokemon supposed to help?"

"Don't worry about it Ricochet." Lin picked me up from the ground and, what I'm sure was for the first time, hugged me. "We'll make it through this slump." She looked me in the eyes and I knew that we were a team.

"But today I'm-" Lin started but I didn't let her finish.

"Ok, let me guess." I said. "You want an early start so you prep us with your great plan for defeating the mega jerk. Even though we'll go with the sole intent of training, we'll probably run into someone that wants to beat the heck out of us. Then the pain begins. Maybe we'll get beat. Maybe we'll get beat but still win anyways. I'm sure that we'll come away with either a life changing experience or worst situation than what we came into with."

"Remarkably accurate." Aza said.

"Yeah, well, lets get this over with."

* * *

"Why do I keep meeting you while I'm looking for Green?" said Blue.

"Wow. Talk about prophecy." I said.

"I didn't expect to see you here." Lin said.

"Why would you? This is where all the losers still are." Blue said.

"Oh, so I guess I should have expected you after all." Lin said.

Blue made an interesting noise, and then picked a pokeball off his belt. "Enough with the foreplay Lin, We both know where this is going."

"Yah, I've wanted to do this for a long time." Lin said.

"I'm not holding back this time. You're going to get creamed."

"Looking forward to it."

Aza snickered.

"I don't get it." I said.

Lin flung out her pokeball at the same time Blue did. There were two blinding flashes of light. When it had cleared, I looked over the battle field. Aza was sleeping. So was the other abra on the field.

"Oh, so you got an abra." Lin said.

"Yeah. They turn into really strong pokemon. Eventually." Said Blue.

The two abras stared at each other through closed eye lids which is kind of creepy yet kind of cute. In a manly sort of way only we manly types would get. Still, after a while it got kind of boring.

"Uhm, why don't I, and I can't believe I'm saying this, can't I just go out there?" I said.

"I guess sending two pokemon who can't attack out at the same time may not have been such a great idea." Blue said.

"It could be worse." Lin said. Blue looked at her for an explanation. "We could have sent out two woobafets."

"How true." Blue held out a few pokeballs. "Return abra. Go get'm charmander."

"I guess this mean's that I'm going to have to go out there." I said.

Aza teleported to my side. "I have every confidence in your ability to win while making a fool of yourself."

I stopped myself from saying thanks. I suspected that Aza may have put a hidden insult in that complement.

"Nice to see you again, not-so-bright." The charmander stretched his claws out in front of him. "I can't wait to see how much you've gotten worse."

"Seriously?" I said, stepping up towards him. "We haven't seen each other in weeks and you're just going to use recycled material?"

"I might have something new for you."

"Charmander, ember!" the charmander rubbed his hands together, then blew into the air. I started to make a comment on the stupidity of trying to frighten me by using an attack with such a weak name. Then I saw the ripples of flame.

_Oh yeah, those growliths back in Viridian forest used this one._

There wasn't anything to do except let the flames wash over me. "Ha, this is like a mild sunburn compared with the flame of my desire to win, you little lizard!"

"What?" Lin and Aza said.

"Err, let's forget I said that." I said. _Note to self. The only witnesses to what you say aren't just the guys I knock out anymore._

"All right Ricochet. Sand attack." Lin said.

"Let's see how you like fighting blind!" I turned tail and buried the fire type.

"This is such a dirty move."

"I didn't hear you complaining last time."

"Keep him crispy charmander!"

"Keep using sand attack."

The arena was filled with flame and sand. I doubted that the charmander needed much more sand, but I waited until Lin ordered me to tackle. Until then I entertained myself with a flash back of the time I managed to beat the fastest eevee on the farm at racing through the use of my superior intellect. I was one of my greatest moments. I'll have to tell you about it some time.

"Let's go Ricochet." Lin said.

"Ha! Vengeance is mine smoky!" I glanced over to my fan section. Lin gave me a thumbs up and a weak smile while Aza just shrugged. _Jezz, not my best day._

I rammed myself into the unsuspecting- err, well, I guess he was expecting it. Maybe the unsettled- Nah. The defenseless makes me sound like a jerk. Weak, brave, stupid, powerful, blind, jelly filled, clean, bright, supercala- shoot, this was hard.

Well, what ever I did, I did it over and over again. The charmander screamed. Then he started to blow his flames in all directions. "Dodge this you cheating… cheater."

"Finish him now Ricochet!" Lin said.

"Yes please," Aza said. "Do it before he shouts out another hideous comeback line."

"Try to pin him back onto his tail." Lin tried to motion how I should do this with her hands. I must have misread because it looked like she wanted me to hit him in the direction where all the flames were coming out. "He has to breathe sometime." She said as if she knew what I was thinking.

_I'll have to time this just- NOW!_

The charmander paused for a breath. I ducked under some remaining flames than leaped into the lizards face. He toppled over and landed on his tail. I think he even whimpered a bit.

"All right already," Blue said. "He's out. Now get off of him." I kind of wanted to stay where I was just to make him angry, but then I remembered the pidgey Blue had.

When I got off of the charmander, I walked over to Lin and waited for the inevitable. Lin just said, "Looks like your charmander's burnt out."

"Oooo, that's what I should have used," I said. "I tackled the burnt out charmander."

Blue muttered something no one could hear. Then he recalled his charmander. And then he did the most remarkable thing. He walked away.

"What, no pidgey?" Lin said.

"Hey Lin," I said. "Let's not look this gift ponyta in the mouth, ok?"

"I don't want to waste my time." Blue said over his shoulder.

"Hey Blue!" Lin said. When Blue turned around she said, "Smell you latter."

Blue responded to that by muttering a few words I'm sure everyone heard.

"Ha! I did it!" I said. "I rock! I'm awesome! I've gone super! I didn't even need another pokemon to help me."

"Well, I think that I handled that abra very well." Aza said.

"Let's face it Aza." I said. "You're pretty much useless."

"I'm tired of your attitude mister." Lin said.

I turned around to look at Lin. She had her back to me, ignoring me, like she hadn't just called me out.

"Hey, at least I actually did something he/she."

It took Lin a while to respond to that. After a second she whirled around and gave me a death stare. "What did you say?"

"I'm sorry; I thought that I yelled that. I called you a he/she."

"Don't you dare call me that!"

"Then what should I call you? Shorty? Dirty? Obsessive?"

Lin opened her mouth and then shut it. Then she shut her eyes. I could tell that she was trying to regain control of herself. The only problem was that I still hadn't gained control over myself.

"You're not going to cry again are you? Listen, I don't know what's gotten into you lately but it's got to stop right now. I'm tired of you ragging on me non stop." When Lin said nothing, I started off again. "So yes that food sucks, yes I get a little afraid at gyms, yes I may have sprayed you with sand, yes I'm not a good swimmer, yes I-"

Lin's eyes shot open. They were huge. To me that meant that she either came up with an idea or was stunned that I was a terrible swimmer. My guess was on the latter.

Then she gave me a look I definitely knew. "Well to bad." she said. "We're going to the gym again tomorrow. So buck up." She then recalled abra into his ball and started to walk off with out me. "Try not to think about it."

It was hard not to. It sounded like I was purposely being taken to the gym tomorrow as a sort of punishment. But-

"Sounds like you and Lin need to communicate better." Aza said from within his pokeball.

But I knew we communicated just fine. That look she gave me, I've seen her get it when she was about to win; when she figured out what to do. It wasn't angry or evil looking. She had just figured out how to defeat her opponent.

_I just hope that isn't me._

* * *

"If we must stay here, then Lin has the right idea." Aza said.

Both of us were outside our pokeballs in the pokemon center. It was quite. Don't get me wrong, there were lots of pokemon, we just weren't near them. Once again, Lin had moved us to a far corner of the common room while the other trainers and pokemon gathered together by the fire.

"Yeah, she always does this."

I wasn't in a talkative mood. The last few days were still bugging me. I thought that Lin and I were getting along great. She helped me through some tough stuff with the growlithe incident. She gave me decent training through the battles that she got me into. She took good care of me. I was even getting use to the food. But now everything seemed to be falling apart.

"She must have been tired." Aza, for once, was dominating the conversation. "She retired to bed as soon as we got back."

"Did you want a good night kiss?" I asked.

"A little grouchy. Perhaps you need to go to bed early as well."

I said nothing. True, I did feel tired but it wasn't because of the beating earlier today. Nurse Joy had seen to that. The chancy egg healed me right up but it did nothing for the headache I've had for the last few days. It didn't help the way I felt inside either.

"Why dose Lin never put you in a pokeball?"

Azas question caught me off guard. "Why do you want to know? I thought you know everything."

"I only know what you've thinking. I can't just delve into your mind willy-nilly."

"The great Aza admitting a weakness? I never would have pegged you for a humble type."

"I may not be aware of everything that goes on in your mind Ricochet, but the things I can do with a mind…"

Aza stopped with that. I didn't mind though. I was tired of this, tired with Aza, tired with Lin, tired with fighting, tired with life.

"I'm going to sleep now." I said.

"Way ahead of you." Aza said.

* * *

Lin didn't say a word to me all morning. She got up way after me. _Lazy._ Then just started humming some song I've never heard. After breakfast, she just walked out the door and expected me to follow.

I considered leaving Lin right there. I've realized something in my life. I don't know if it's the same for everyone, but it's a theme that always pops up for me. You see, when the big decisions come, and I mean the big life changing ones, I never see them for what they are. In the moment they're just something small. They're decisions I make with out any thought or real wisdom at all. Choices like: going to Arazuls last story time, biting that rocket's leg, getting up that one last time, running back to jigglypuff. With the same view, I followed Lin.

The water gym was nearly deserted. I would have though that everyone would want to make an early start. _In fact I would come here latter to avoid the crowd. Wait, maybe that's why nobodies here! They're just waiting for the crowed to die down. I'm a genius!_

"I don't believe it." I couldn't be sure that it was Misty's voice at first. I had only heard it while my ears were filled with water. Even as I saw her, I wouldn't be able to recognize her if it weren't for the hair. Now that I got to she the complete picture, I could tell why Lin and she couldn't get along. They seemed opposite in every way. One was overdressed and the other under. One was the always calm while the other was unusually hot for a water trainer. One was quite but the other screaming. One distanced herself from other humans, especially like the other who was constantly surrounded.

"She's really got to tell me how she keeps her hair striate up in the water like that."

"Very articulate." Aza said from his pokeball.

"Yeah well, at least I'm trying to say something."

Lin was humming still, as if she didn't notice the red head yelling at us.

"You really wanted to come back here and let me kick your trash all over again?" When Misty saw that Lin wasn't even looking at her, she picked up her voice. "Hey crap for strategy; you came here looking for a fight?"

Lin continued to study the tiles on the side of the great indoor pool.

"Uh, Lin," I said. "I may not be an expert on human manners, but I think now would be a good time to start insulting Red."

When Lin still didn't say a word, Misty shouted, "Do you want to battle?"

Lin shook herself, and then looked over to Misty, surprised that she was even there. "Geez, if you wanted to battle, all you had to do was ask."

I could hear the grinding of Misty's teeth.

Lin let out a yawn. Then, with out even looking at me, motioned that I get out in front of her. "Hey Ricochet,"

"Oh, are you finally talking to me?"

"Stay out of the water." She said. "Misty's only decent when the advantage is in her favor."

"Are you trying to make me angry?" Misty said through grinding teeth. "You think that I'll do something stupid if I get angry enough?"

Lin looked shocked. "Why heaven's no! I know that a gym leader would never let their emotions get the better of them. Besides, you don't need to be angry to be stupid."

Some of the onlookers, who had slowly been noticing a fight brewing, chuckled at this last statement. Misty let out a soft scream, and then tossed a pokeball out onto the field.

"No, seriously, where dose she keep those things?"

"Ricochet, get it now." Lin whispered.

The pokemon hadn't fully emerged from the pokeball but I wasn't complaining. I ran over to the place the red light was touching down. I imagine that the other pokemon's thought process went like this:

_What a great day for a swim. I can't wait to get out of this pokeball. I'm so-AHHH!_

I bashed my full weight into to pokemon and backed off to get a better look at it. It was a star. I'm not kidding; I was fighting an actual star.

"I didn't know that you all were pokemon. How's space?" I said.

"What are you talking about?" the star said though I couldn't see a mouth anywhere. "I'm a staryu, a water type pokemon."

"Classy Ricochet." Aza said. "This must be the part where you trick your opponent into thinking you're an idiot."

"Who's that?" the staryu said.

"Oh my gosh! You hear it too? I told people that I wasn't crazy! Now they'll all know that I was right! HA HA HA HA!"

The staryu backed up.

"That's cheating." Misty said.

"Techniquly it's not in the rule book." Lin said. "Ricochet, keep yourself between it and the water at all times."

This required immediate action because the staryu started waddling itself right to the pools edge. That's when I glimpsed part of Lin's plan.

_Misty made a mistake. That staryu is nearly defenseless on land._

Misty must have realized the same thing. "Stupid staryu! Get back in the water now!"

I was about to make a comment about the inaccuracy in Misty's statement but I couldn't think of a way to put it without making myself sound like Aza. Besides, I had a job to do.

I got in-between the staryu and the pool. Then I pushed him back with my tackle attack.

Misty shouted in frustration. Lin told me to keep it up.

Before the staryu could even get up, I tackled it again. "This is going to be easy." Then I tackled it again.

"Tackle it! Tackle it now!" Misty said.

The staryu got up. Then it stopped.

"Keep going Ricochet." Lin said.

I bashed the star again.

"Ah! What are you doing?" Misty said. "Tac- water gun! I meant water gun!"

_Oh no! _I thought. _She's coming back to her senses!_

The star tipped started to tip its head towards me. _Faster Ricochet! Faster!_

THUMP!

The water type was pushed back again.

"NOW!" Misty yelled.

I was then covered with water. It pushed me back. Then my feet slipped. I felt my body being washed away by the steady stream of water.

"Ricochet! Get back up now!" Lin's growl pushed into my mind all the events of the past few days. _Can I really trust her? After all that's happened?_ "The pool Ricochet! You can't get pushed into the pool!"

What ever the reason she had been acting, she was right. If I had to fight the staryu in the water, I would lose.

I tried to work my feet back underneath me. _No good, it's too slippery!_ I looked back. The pool was right there. I was almost at the edge. I looked closer at the edge and spotted my _salvation_. Just along the edge, the concrete tipped up just a little. _If I can catch my feet in there…_

I flung my back legs to the edge. My heart fell when they slipped, leaving them stranded over the pool. However, the force gave me enough power to regain my balance. I got my front feet back on the ground then managed to pull my back legs back to the edge, bracing them on the lip.

I could barely make out Lin through the water rushing around my ears. "Low to the ground- crawl through-"

I tucked my self as low as I could, then moved my self forward directly into the jet of water. I couldn't see the staryu; I couldn't even open my eyes. The water was pounding into my face too hard. I kept struggling forwards until-

"NOW!" Lin shouted over the deafening roar.

I launched my self up from the ground to make a blind tackle. The feeling to staryu's hard body was my reward.

I fell back to the ground and shook the water out of my face and ears. That's when I heard Lin yell, "Get back to the pool!"

I turned myself around to see the staryu was making its way back to the pool. I tossed myself after it. _I have to get in front of it. Come on Ricochet, you can do it._ My feet slipped out from underneath me. I sprawled out across the floor, realizing just how much the water gun attack had taken out of me.

"UP! GET BACK UP!" Lin said.

_Do I really even know her?_

I got back up on my feet and moved towards the star. I saw that there was no way I could get in front of it now. _Just one last shot!_

The staryu reached the edge, and then jumped.

I reached the edge right after and through myself at him. Our bodies collided above the water then SPLASH! I sunk.

After I paddled my way back to the surface, I spotted the staryu. It was face down in the water. It wasn't moving.

If Lin gave me an encouraging word, it was lost in the din of Misty's frustration. She recalled her staryu, and then said, "This isn't over. You all lose now! Go starmie!"

The pokemon went right into the water now. When it emerged, I saw a bigger tougher version of staryu. Staryu was a star but this guy was a super nova. I would like to think that I was brave, but I could see myself in the large crystal center of Misty's strongest water type.

"Bubble beam!" Misty's command was followed by condensed form of a bubble attack. I then lost consciousness.

* * *

"_Lin's pushing too hard. I tried to trust in her but she let me down."_

"Not… master. I'm not you. I'm not some master. You are wrong if you think that I am. A master rules over their pokemon. The pokemon are tools used to inflict harm on another. They are to be discarded or traded for better. You do the things necessary to work them up to what you want with out regard of cost and only cry with them because you see the loss of time and work. That is a master. I'm no master. I'm a trainer. And I know what my purpose is. I'm going to find pokemon and we will be a team. Each one with his place. We will be the best. We will be the strongest. And as long as we're together we will never fall. We will lift each other up. We'll all have weaknesses but we'll grow together to protect these weaknesses. We'll be united. We will be united in our desire to be the strongest! A master rules by fear but honor is a trainer's power."

"_Yeah, she says that. But has she ever proven it to me?"_

They didn't do much at first except disorient me with the noise. All zubats were screeching and the noise that their wings made together completely turned me around. That's when all the pain began. One leech life was annoying. Hundreds of leech lives were a problem. I couldn't even defend myself. The attacks were coming from every direction. I tried to tackle but wound up hitting the cave wall.

I started turning in circles, trying to find something or someone to help me. I caught a brief glance of Norm and clefairy together. They weren't fighting but I could see that they were in no position to protect me and Lin.

_Lin!_ She was ahead of us when this happened, alone.

I blindly ran in the opposite direction of Norm. Didn't even consider that I could've used the cave wall to guide me. _I have to find Lin. I have to find Lin._

It was a struggle to even move now. The zubats kept knocking me off course and their constant attacks were draining me of energy. It felt like I was walking through a field of bared wire.

When I had nothing left and only my adrenaline was keeping me going, I felt a foot fall besides me. I was then yanked from the ground. I tried to see who it was as the arms wrapped around me but I was too far from any light to make out a face. Still a strong offensive smell cut through the darkness. _Lin!_

"_Yeah, I guess she has. But why is she acting this way? Why has she changed?"_

"Don't worry about it Ricochet." Lin picked me up from the ground and, what I'm sure was for the first time, hugged me. "We'll make it through this slump." She looked me in the eyes and I knew that we were a team.

"_She hasn't. She really hasn't changed. Then why do we seem so divided all the sudden?"_

"There is more to communication than understanding one another's words." Aza said. "Actions will show wither or not you are together or divided."

"And that matters because…"

"If you're divided, you'll be conquered."

* * *

"You awake Ricochet?"

_That's not Nurse Joy's voice!_

I opened my eyes. It took a while to focus in on Lin's face.

"Good to have you back partner." She said.

"Get him!" Misty's voice was very unwelcome and unexpected.

I looked around. I was in Lin's arms. The pool was by our side and Misty's shouts were echoing through the gym.

_The gym? I'm still in the gym?_

I looked out over the pool. The starmie was blasting away at something, but couldn't seem to hit it.

"Aza!"

"Indeed." The abra was teleporting to different spots inside the pool itself. "I may not be able to teleport outside the arena, but who said anything about teleporting inside the arena."

"Keep using kinesis Aza. I'm counting on you." Lin smiled. "After all, you've been such a big help these last few days."

"Huh?" Aza kept up the nonlethal assault. After a while he said. "Oh! You know! How? I thought I kept it from your mind. How were you able to keep this a secret from me?"

"I'm guessing you can only read from the surface of my mind. Ever since I figured it out I've kept that stage full with my favorite song."

_What are they talking about?_

"This was part of your plan wasn't it? You sent me out here on purpose to be a sacrifice!" Aza wasn't paying as close attention now. The bubble beam was getting closer every time.

"It's great to have you on the team Aza." Lin said. "I think it's time for you to take a break."

Lin's timing couldn't have been more perfect. The starmie's bubble beam finally hit the mark. Aza was throughn from the pool and down onto the concrete. He wasn't moving.

"Ha!" I said. "Only one-"

It all came at me at once. The pokemon acting super aggressive at the pokemon center, the headaches, the weird dreams, the mind fog, the strange way Lin had been acting to what I've said, the strange things she's said to me-

"Aza!" I said. "It was Aza! He was messing with our heads!"

Lin smiled down at me. "Sorry, all I hear is 'eevee'. Looks like I can't understand you anymore."

"No Lin," I said. "We understand each other just fine."

Lin nodded. "Let's do this then."

Lin and I got up to face this enemy together.

"How on earth did you get a revive?" Misty said.

"It was a gift from Bill. He gives them to great trainers." Lin said. "What? Don't tell me that Bill didn't give you one?"

I realized what Lin was doing. This was the distract the enemy trainer while I pound the enemy pokemon strategy.

_If I'm going to defeat this guy, I'm going to have to do it on his own turf._

I dove into the water and may my way over to the starmie.

The starmie didn't swim away form me or even attack. It waited for a command, one that would never come.

"What's the matter." I said. "Helpless without your trainer?"

The starmie said nothing. It had one heck of a poker face too.

When I got closer, I tackled.

The starmie ran away.

"Now that's an action I can understand." _Aza's kinesis. My tackle might have been enough before but now it's a power house._

"What!" Misty's voice rang over the water. "What's going on?"

"I'm pretty sure your starmie just realized how weak its trainer is." Lin said.

"Shut up just shut up!"

"Don't close your eyes now Misty. You'll miss my victory."

It was like a game of keep away, the starmie kept trying to put distance between him and me. Unfortunately for him, I was great at keep away. I cornered him in the shallow end and started to tackle.

"You can't do anything with out your trainer telling you huh?" I said. "You should really learn to communicate better."

"Starmie? What are you doing?"

"I think it's called, receiving a butt kicking. You should really learn how to train a pokemon before you start up a gym."

"I told you to shut the (water got in my ears so I missed the next word) up!"

Slosh, THUD! Slosh, THUD! Over and over again, I rocked my body back to leap out of the water to come back down on my opponent.

"Maybe you should tell your pokemon to tackle again. That worked really well last time."

"Don't tell me what to do!"

"It doesn't matter." I said. "It's over."

I crawled out of the pool, leaving the unconscious water type behind me.

The only sound on my way back to Lin was the padding of my own four feet.

Then someone in the audience started to clap. Then everyone started clap. I thought that the gym's noise pollution was annoying the first time I came in here. Let me tell you something, it's a whole other story when the noise is for you.

* * *

Aza's mind reopened to the world around him. _Uhg, that's not an experience I want again any time soon._ He scanned through his most recent memories, trying to figure out what had gone wrong with his plan. _She was what went wrong. No, they both destroyed my plan. If they hadn't been with one another for as long as they were, they may have just accepted my translations at face value. Instead they relied on the experiences they had before me._

"You can't fool me. I know that you're awake."

The voice drew Aza's attention to the world around him. He was in a pokemon center with the usual characters, a burnt oddish, a tangled bellsprout, and a pathetic looking beedrill. He was covered in a blanket as well.

"Oh, you can tell awake from sleep. I'm so proud of you." Aza said, not bothering to get up. "Let's tell the nurse about your sudden recovery from idiocy."

"He really is a jerk." The beedrill said.

"And you the dullest group of pokemon I've ever had the misfortune of meeting." Aza said.

"Ok, I'm on board with you now," the oddish said. "Even if it's not this guy, he deserves it."

"I deserve a lot." Aza said, unsure of what these pokemon were talking about. _Looks like I'll be teleporting out of here sooner than usual. Just let me get that chancy egg._ Aza moved towards the tray that held his chancy egg. As he did, the blanket that covered him fell to the floor, revealing bits of chancy egg.

"I told you!" the bellsprout said. "It's just like that eevee said. This is the jerk that's been stealing our chancy eggs."

_Ricochet!_ Aza thought. _Looks like I'll have to forgo the egg as well._ He concentrated his power than started to teleport. He didn't go any where.

"What?"

"Trying to run away?" a voice from behind him said.

Aza turned around to see a familiar sandshrew.

"You remember me?" the sandshrew said. "I'm that guy you made a fool of in font of the rocket. It's payback time."

**

* * *

**

Rant post, 23/2/09

**Why do we put the month before the day? That makes no sense. Shouldn't it start with the smallest unit of time and then go from there? Ah! This makes me sooo angry I just need to tell everyone about it. This is what's wrong with the world. I hate America! #$%#^**


	8. Matters of Trust

**Authors note:**

**I'm back with a new commitment to write a new chapter every month. If I need reminding, please leave a degrading review.**

**Matters of Trust**

I've never been one to show that much emotion. It has always been a source of great annoyance to me to participate or even see a group hug or any such nonsense. I believe that feelings are the leading cause of wars, murder and chick flicks. Take a look at the resent war. Both the rebel trainers from Johto and the shock happy L.T. from Kanto both 'felt' what they were doing was right. They could not both be correct of course. However, when decisions are based on feelings I've found that logic doesn't' always apply and any given feeling can give birth to hundreds of contradicting conclusions.

Please keep all this in mind as you read this story. This is not a story about friendship and love. I'm not going to cry and give everyone a big hug. No, this story is not about feelings. These events merely reflect a few matters of trust.

Humans, while very intelligent creatures, have at times made poor decisions. When it comes to their living conditions, private and city wide, they will always make poor decisions. A few examples: houses with only one room, having the back room blocked by large trees, building a city in the middle of a volcano, and my personal favorite, making a house the only exit from a city.

"This is ridiculous." My trainer, Lin-Ka-Ota, was not happy. Not that she usually was. "Who designs a city this way?"

"A slowbro," Ricochet said barely disguising his xenophobia.

I couldn't see this because I was in my pokeball. The only link to I had the outside world was my mind. If this was left to a human mind, that would mean your imagination. Luckily I'm a psychic pokemon, an abra to be exact, thus my mind could peer out of the pokeball and see what was happening.

Lin was in her usual getup. I'm pretty sure it's her only getup. However, she seems to have so many pockets in her brown stuffed jacket that it wouldn't surprise me if she had a few changes of clothing on her. She wore a matching pair of sweat pants and a scarf as if the temperature were extremely cold. A beanie and gloves use to make the picture complete but she lost the hat and her right glove, you could see her hand and her hair. Why she keeps the left glove on is a mystery. As far as her hair goes, perhaps it was better that she had the beanie. Now her mass of black tangles were visible for everyone to see. She obviously has never had a hair cut and could have covered her whole body with the material if she didn't tie it down with a complex design of rubber bands.

As for her companion, Ricochet, well… I guess all eevees look alike to me. His personality is the most distinguishable trait.

"Ha! Get it? Slowbro? I'm so clever." He said.

"_I assume that's on some sort of scale."_ I said from inside my pokeball, _"I'm so clever being the lowest and you're an idiot being the highest."_

It took a while for Ricochet to respond. "Uhm… nuh-uh!"

Lin, growing accustomed to both her, now understandable, pokemon, ignored us both. It's so nice to see that understanding her pokemon hasn't changed her response to them. "Let's hope they're not a toll both in disguise."

"_Yes, we'd hate to see you spend more than two cents on anything."_ I said still emanating my voice from the pokeball into Lin and Ricochet's minds. _"Honestly you only spend moves on food. How could we be short on funds?"_

"Is anyone else uncomfortable with Lin giving love to some dude in a house just to get through?" Ricochet said.

"_What on earth are you talking about?"_ I said.

"Well Lin keeps stealing trainers love and keeps it in her metal heart. But she keeps giving it away to complete strangers. This whole money business just gets more confusing everyday."

Now, I could have corrected Ricochet's misconception. On the other hand, I could have a lot of fun. _"If you think this is weird, just wait until she starts finding love on the ground."_

Eevee tried to give me a horrified look which is hard to do while the recipient of said look is not physically present. He ended giving Lin's hips a horrified look. Her hips had no comment.

Lin made her way to the house. As she reached the door, a police officer stepped out. When he saw Lin he gave of a series of mixed signals. "Err, Lin right? What are you doing here?"

"I'm trying to leave the city."

"Oh good, then carry on."

The officer didn't move from the door.

"Uhm…" Lin said. "I need to get in there."

The officer looked confused. "You can't get in here."

"Why not?"

"This is a crime scene. Someone has stolen this poor man's valuable TM."

"Oh, gosh, no!" Ricochet said, "Not his TM! A human's not a human without his TM!"

"Quit trying to pretend that you know what a TM is." I told him.

"Well then officer," Lin said. "Is there any other way out of this town?"

The officer said there were many ways to get out of this town. Lin asked where they were. The officer told her that they were all through this house.

Lin, remarkably, showed great control over herself. "Ah. Well then, is there a time I could come back or could I help in some way to make this go faster?"

"Sorry so- dugh- uhm, misses. If Jenny ever figured out that I got you involved in police business, she'd be very mad."

"But I've helped you guys plenty of times."

"We practically do your job for you," Ricochet said.

"That's the point ma'am," the police officer said. "If we got you involved in any more police business, Officer Jenny would be very upset."

"_It's most likely that she fears you developing an over inflated opinion of yourself,"_ I told Lin.

"Way too late for that," Ricochet retorted.

"Very well," Lin said quietly, which in her case made her voice seem like a sound a hungry predator might make before pouncing on its prey. "I guess I'll just stay in Cerulean until you are finished."

_Well now, that won't do._ I thought. I had honestly been looking forward to leaving this tedium behind. That and the undeniable fact that every pokemon in the area knew and hated me were large factors in my wanting to leave as soon as possible. _I guess I'll have to move this inconvenience into my own sphere of problem solving skills._

"Are you sure?" the officer said.

Lin didn't know what he was talking about so she opted to make a shrugging gesture.

"I'm sorry, I must have miss heard." The officer said. "I thought that you said that the thief was in this man's backyard."

"No," Lin said. "No, I never said that."

"Oh, I thought that's what you said."

I figured Lin would have caught on by now. _Perhaps she is beginning to suspect._ After reevaluating using what I knew about Lin, I decided that she not only knew, but that she must have approved.

"How long ago?" the officer said.

"Err… just now." Lin confirmed my earlier belief.

"Well, let's go!" the officer started to turn around and I knew we had made it when-

"No, no!" Lin nearly shouted. "Come to think of it, I think I saw the owner. Yeah, the guy that owns this house. I think it was him in the backyard."

"_What are you doing Lin."_ I let my voice carry into her mind and her mind only. _"We've got this. We'll be out of here in no time."_

Not my most stunning argument, I admit, but I was busy manipulating this officer's mind. I invite you to try advanced psychic techniques while listing evidence for an unexpected situation. In fact I invite you to come up with any real evidence for any of your beliefs. Once you enter the realm of intellectual thought I will gladly discuss the difficulty of mind control.

What I said only seemed to strengthen Lin's resolve. "Yes sir, I'm sorry. It was most definitely the owner of this house. I just didn't recognize him." With that she left, leaving a very confused police officer behind.

"OOOHHH. You're in for it now!" Ricochet said loudly enough for me to perceive but what he hoped was too soft for Lin to hear.

"_You see Ricochet,"_ I said loudly enough for both Lin and the eevee, _"I was manipulating the humans mind so that we could leave this city today. Oh wait, you understood that? I guess you're not as dense as others in this group."_

"We can't go around invading peoples minds, it's not right," Lin said.

"_Since when is 'not right' a valid excuse for avoiding what's necessary?"_ I replied.

"Since the beginning of time, dude," Ricochet said.

Lin, I hoped, would be intelligent enough to disregard this foolish stance. Thankfully and as usual, I was not disappointed.

"He would have figured it out anyway. As soon as we got to the backyard, we would have been caught in a lie. If history had taught me anything, it's that I want police to believe what I say."

"With our luck, we'll be seeing the police an awful lot," Ricochet said. "Then again, with our luck the thief will be caught in that man's backyard."

"_Well at least that's a competent argument,"_ I said.

"Besides," Ricochet said. "Thoughts are kind of, like, your own. They're not owned by anyone accept you. Other people shouldn't eavesdrop on them or make you have them."

"_Heaven forbid we get you to use your mind Ricochet,"_ I said. _"Nevertheless, some people find that the merging of minds is a sought after bond between any two beings."_

"But it's a relationship founded on trust." Lin said. "Until I can trust my pokemon, I can't let them be part of the team."

I didn't need to be a psychic to see her meaning. I did have to be smarter then Ricochet who spent the next few days trying to figure out what she was trying to say.

* * *

_At last._ The Rocket thought._ A sure victory._ He sized up his opponent. _A beedrill, pathetic. He's just a bug catcher that never moved on._

"Well?" the boy called out. "I thought you wanted to steal something from me. Don't tell me that you weren't expecting a fight."

"Nah," the Rocket tossed his pokemon out onto the field. "I wasn't expecting such a weak pokemon."

The Rockets own pokemon would be able to beat the bug type into submission. The mankey was stolen from a decent trainer down in Saffron. He was a member of some defeated gym. That is why the Rocket had received him.

"Mankey, focus energy!"

The mankey, angry with the loss of his master, obeyed. For him it was far worse to loss a battle than anything else, exactly how his master had taught him.

"Just goanna sit there huh?" the bug trainer said. "Ok. Beedrill, use swords dance."

"Bettering your pokemon won't matter if I destroy it first." The Rocket muttered. The beedrill did a bizarre circle dance, making a ferocious buzzing. The mankey watched while it tightened its focus on the inevitable command.

"Karate chop, mankey!"

The mankey blinked, losing its focus. Its master had always commanded low kick. Surly there must be some kind of mistake. When fighting with much larger machops and machokes, low kicks were of incredible importance. This new pokemon before it certainly looked larger. _Yes._ The mankey thought. _He must have meant low kick._

The mankey rushed to the bug type and extended its feet. He then thought better about the whole situation and tried to shift into a karate chop stance. All in all, it looked like a poorly formed tackle attack.

"You can get around that beedrill!" the boy said. "Get him from behind."

The event unfolded just as the boy predicted. While manky came is for the chop, the beedrill pivoted. Mankey blew right past the bug type. Stupidly, when the mankey discovered that the beedrill was no long in front of him, he stopped short and just stood there.

"Turn around you fool!" the Rocket could see where the battle was going. He had had too many like this recently.

Of course, like most living beings, manky was too late to save himself. The twin needle attack of the beedrill stabbed both his long stingers into the stolen pokemon's back. The trainer followed up with a poison sting, which, true to the Rockets luck, poisoned the fighting type.

The Rocket ordered the fighting type around. The mankey took it upon himself to flail out another karate chop just to show his new master that he could. Unfortunately, the beedrill was nowhere near him. The boy had ordered it to back off to perform swords dance again.

"Focus energy!" the Rocket knew that a critical hit was his only chance. The beedrill's attack was too high for manky to take another hit. "Now get ready to karate chop this fool when he's in range."

"Beedrill, take him down with another twin needle!"

The beedrill's wings pushed it towards the manky. The mankey waited while struggling to retain focus through the poison, something it had never felt before. When the beedrill came with in range, the mankey listened for his cue. The cue never came. The beedrill whipped its spikes across the mankey's face at both cheeks. The mankey's last thoughts were trying to decide whither to twist to the right or the left as he fell down.

"Impossible." The Rocket was furious. Hadn't he ordered the manky to ready himself so he could attack?

"Beedrill and I have been together for a long time now. We'd never lose to someone like you." The bug catcher laughed and left the Rocket to his own thoughts.

_I can't be this bad. I'm more intelligent than half of the team Rocket executives. But then why am I losing?_ _Could it have been poor training from the previous master of mankey? It fumbled its orders every time. But… no, you don't become a member of a gym by being a complete idiot._ _Could it have been an exceptionally powerful bee- no way. Bug pokemon suck. Still, that beedrill knew what its master wanted without specific details._

The words of the bug trainer came to the Rocket's mind. "My beedrill and I have been together a long time."

_Could it be?_ The Rocket thought about his loss to the clefable. He thought carefully over his recent losses. He started to remember some of the silly things that eevee girl had said. "A _master_ rules by fear. Trust is a _trainer's_ power."

_Could it be… a simple mater of trust? Yes, it must be. That bond must increase a pokemon's power. Why else would I keep losing?_

_The only question is what pokemon can I trust to be just as vicious, intelligent and devious as I am?_

* * *

"I just want you to know that this whole training business has gotten much harder with you around."

The normal type lived up to his name. Ricochet couldn't see the theories that drove Lin. She knew that the only way for me to gain the experience required to become a competent pokemon was to experience a battle first hand. If that meant being sent out first then quickly retreating, then we should all be willing to make the sacrifice. Ricochet, however, wasn't pleased with this new arrangement.

"It's like everyone gets a free shot on me now." He continued, "It's a good thing I'm so tough or we'd have turned back a long time ago."

"You make it sound as if we were on a great journey," I said. "We're five minutes away from Cerulean city. I can see the pokemon center from here."

"I was being deep," Ricochet said. "An intellectual like me thinks of life as one great journey."

"First, that hardly makes sense. Second, an intellectual doesn't need to explain truly intelligent thoughts to truly intelligent people. Third, if life is a journey, why weren't we born with shoes?"

Ricochet stayed quiet for a while. _He's probably wondering about that last statement, and whether or not he's an idiot for not understanding._

"That's enough philosophy for one day," Lin said. She looked at the sun, a meaningless gesture. She knew the time but her habit required her to go through the motions. "It's late, let's head back."

I was pleased with Lin so far. While she still refused to cast off some of her more childish beliefs- who can blame her, she's fourteen years old- she showed great promises. When we were turned down at the gateway house, she went straight to work training me. Now she was leaving early. Well, earlier than normal. Lin is the type to wear her pokemon out until, by the end of the day, they are exhausted. However, she remembered Blue and Derf could still be in this area, and with that information, made the correct decision to save a bit of Ricochet's stamina. No one wants to be ambushed by rivals and not be prepared. Her thought patterns were clear; you didn't have to be psychic to see her decisions had good reasoning.

"So why are we going back early?" Ricochet said. To which he quickly added, "Not that I'm complaining."

"You've done such a good job today," Lin said, "I think you deserve a nice night."

Again, I was pretty clear on Lin's motivation, for saying this.

The pokemon center is a strange phenomenon. The business/ hospital hybrid quite possibly contains the highest caliber technology in this world. They are staffed by doctors and nurses, some of the highest paying jobs in existence not to mention the chanseys. The egg pokemon they have are among the rarest. The PC also provides shelter to dozens of traveling trainers every night. And as far as I can tell, the pokemon center provides everything for free. I have a theory that pokemon centers are paid for through a massive welfare tax put into place by the large pokemon trainer interest group. This is also my leading theory on why humans can only afford one room in their houses.

I am not fond of pokemon centers at the best of times. This happened to be one of the better times and was not very much fun. The over all experience was reinforcing my opinion previously mentioned in the first sentence of this paragraph.

Lin found a corner to lean her chair back. Ricochet was nearer to the fire place, attempting to communicate with other pokemon while suppressing all snide remarks. That left me. Leaning against a wall at the midpoint between Ricochet and Lin I sat sleeping. I was beginning to enjoy this activity much more now that I had a trainer. In the past I had no choice but to subject myself to random visions, each of them more boring than the last. Now I seem to focus my vision over Lin and the area around her. Even better, I still retain my communication powers and my ability to teleport. It's as if I can control my body while being outside it. I wondered if this was unique or if all abra's can do so once they had a trainer. It's almost as if I became more powerful by being captured. This theory sounded far too much like a fortune cookie so I immediately disregard it.

I teleported just above Lin's chair, where the wall and chair touched. I sensed Lin was taking inventory. She recorded all the supplies we had in one of the books she keeps hidden in her jacket.

"It's not the biggest book, but I like to travel light," Lin said without looking up. "The items on this other page are what I have in my storage unit."

I sensed the words on the page. "That's quite the number of berries. Some of these are very rare. How did you find them?"

"It's amazing what you can find on the internet," Lin said. "I've been saving every last bit of money to buy these. I've even got a secret place back in Pallet town to grow them. Of course I had to work my butt off at Oak's lab, but between that and the orphanage's allowance, I made out ok."

"Orphanage? Did your parent abandon you or did they just die?"

Lins pencil hovered over a page. I could sense that she wasn't angry or at least she wasn't showing it. She seemed to be thinking.

"What about your parents?" she finally said.

I was not expecting this. Now it was my turn to think. After a moment I said, "I suppose we don't trust one another enough to discuss this."

"I suppose not."

"When a koffing says that you smell," Ricochet said, "is that good or bad?"

I focused my attention on Ricochet, who, I guess, lost interest in his new friends. "Seeing as koffings don't have noses, I believe you should be fine."

"Don't worry about it Ricochet." Lin made an honest attempt at an empty laugh. Unfortunately her voice box is always on the fritz so she sounded more like a drowned squirtle. "They don't have fur to trap in all the dirt."

Ricochet was horrified. "My fur does not trap dirt! Maybe some of your jackets smell has rubbed off on me. Oh no! I'm permanently pokemon proof!"

"Nice alliteration," I said.

"I'm not that smelly anymore, am I?" Lin looked slightly disappointed.

I was about to warn Ricochet about answering this question tactfully but decided against it sense it would seem hypocritical when compared to my earlier statement.

"You've got a lot more than pokemon repellent on you!" Ricochet said. "You repel all the humans as well. Seriously, when did you last take a shower?"

"If you want to make-" I was about to finish that statement with 'her mad' when I was interpreted by Lin's laugh. This one wasn't hollow at all, only terribly scratchy and deep.

"Do you think I could bottle it and sell it under the name, Lin's Human-Be-Gone?"

"I know I'd get some." Ricochet smiled, and then spoke in an imitation deep voice, "Tired of random humans attacking you? Sick of evading rouge pokeballs? Just plain bored with the same old catch phrases? Than Human-Be-Gone is right for you!"

"Once you smell like me, not only will you encounter fewer humans," Lin said still playing along, "you will also find you've decreased in body fat, increased your muscle strength and made your hair look like a massive knot!"

"Hello, my name is Ricochet. Ever since I've been using Human-Be-Gone my trainer had to force people to battle her. Once, I cleared a gym just by shutting all the windows!"

"Human-Be-Gone may not be for those with uneasy stomachs, expecting mothers, or people with a nose. Human-Be-Gone does not affect people with no sense of smell or people who are pinching their nose. Please talk to your local chansey to see if Human-Be-Gone I right for you."

_I wish that I could dream of people doing laundry._ I thought.

* * *

"Failure to inform administrators of security leak. Failure in the recapture of valuable pokemon. Your failure at Mt. Moon is the icing on the cake of your pathetic career, isn't it? And all we have to show for all the help team Rocket has given you is a sandshrew and a bellsprout." The administrator placed the report back on the table and looked up at the Rocket. "I'm finding it hard to see how you've contributed to this team."

The Rocket wanted to point out that he had managed to get a few moon stones out. The Rocket suspected that it wouldn't matter though. He had used up all his chances. In this situation it was best for him to shut his mouth and hope that he wouldn't be fired which, in his line of work, might involve actual fire.

The administrator fiddled with his pen. The Rocket knew this was a trick to increases the tension in the room. The Rocket despised the administrator just for thinking it would work. _Get on with it._

"You will not receive anymore pokemon," the administrator said by way of commandment. "You will not be assigned any outside jobs. From now on you will help the team in a more service oriented manner. You may think of this as a custodial position. Never think you are beneath our notice. Any sign you are trying to run or talk, you know what will happen. That is all."

The administrator turned back to his work dismissing his inferior. The Rocket saw the administrator was flaunting his power with the gesture, like a machop in a mirror, and took the opportunity to stick his tongue out at the man before he exited into the hallway.

"_If it looks like I'm trying to run…" leaving this time might be harder then I imagined._ The Rocket thought. All in all, this was the best he could have hoped for and he knew it. _How do I get a permanent pokemon if I can't even leave the city?_

The Rocket mulled this over for a while. Stealing was out of the question. No pokemon the Rocket stole would grow attached to him. The waters surrounding Vermilion city were full of magikarp. There weren't any wild areas in town where he might find a pokemon. _This is all assuming that I can snatch a few pokeballs._

Unbeknown to the Rocket, the problem of how he was to leave the city was taken care of. As soon as he left the office, the administrator dialed his brother's number. Were the Rocket there, he could have heard this side of the call.

"It's done."

"No, he won't be missed. Have you seen this guy's record?"

"I don't care. We can't allow this into the upper ranks."

"Last time. Right."

Had the Rocket heard this, perhaps things would have been different. But he did not hear this, so events took place as follows.

_

* * *

This is getting tiresome._ The fact that I was asleep was an irony not lost on me. While I no longer had to watch visions of paint drying during my resting hours, watching people sleep is not too much of a step up. _I've got to do something._

I remembered when I took a peak into Ricochets dreams. He was an unreliable author of his life. Not that it's his life I am interested in. Lin's mind was what I wanted to peek into.

It's not through lack of trying. Lin's mind is a fortress. A psychic wall isn't the right word. It's more like a wind, or a current that flows out of her mind and pushes my probing away. While she is receptive to my 'thought speech' if you will, I can't seem to penetrate the surface of her mind.

_My powers have grown though._ I thought. _And asleep, minds are a bit easier to enter._ I considered this for a moment. _And besides, I'm bored. What other justification do I need?_

I projected my mind towards Lin. As I started to push into her mind, I felt the currents push back. I hesitated for a moment to feel around for any crack in her defense. A certain area of her brain, I think it's in charge of emotion, began to ebb under my probe. _Well better then nothing. Let's see how she really feels about Ricochet and I._

Still expecting a resistance, I threw my might against hers. I fell right through. Thoughts, emotions and overwhelming fear ripped through my mind.

A pokemon with a helmet of bone. A thick bone gets thrown, knocking out larger pokemon before returning to his hand. Lin is there.

Lin is standing in a large bowl filled with thousands of people. Accomplishment. Pride. "I am champion!" it's incomplete. The picture isn't whole. It's not done without that boy.

The boy sends out a pikachu. Weird. Would have thought that he would have evolved the electric type by now. Ricochet isn't evolved. Have to make that decision soon. "After the boy. I've got to concentrate. Remember what happened at the orphanage."

Sadness. "They don't like me. So what! I don't like them. I hate them!" Running away. Blue is going to be mad. They're all mad. A boy wearing glasses and a button up shirt helps Lin up. She talks to him about money.

Berries are so important. Not only can you use them in battle you can sell them. There's a hidden place just outside of Pallet town. Derf helps Lin grow them.

Derf grows them. "You're better than this. You're a great trainer." Always at the lab with him! Derf's too good. Why live in that shadow? Frustration. Anger. Derf likes it though.

Lin walks down an isle. The faces that line the side are blurred. The faces ahead are blurred as well. Uncertainty. "Shouldn't be blurred." White dress. Thin white gloves and a white scarf of silk. Happy. Still incomplete.

"Derf has four strong pokemon. Squirtle, leader of the pack, that odd nidorino and the raticate rocket abandoned. Ricochet beat up. Aza just laughs. I laugh and look at Lin. She frowns.

I'm an alakazam now. Lin and I are sitting outside, her leaning on a grassy hill. She's older now, still in same ridiculous get up. She and Aza talk "what are we going to do about Ricochet?"

Apprehension. Anxious. "I don't want to think about this." Bite. He'll learn it soon. It's not normal. The pokemon league doesn't know. The pokemon league doesn't care. It's more powerful. As long as Aza's an abra, she'll need it. But it's not a normal type attack!

Dad? Searing pain. They're all dead. They're killing us all. Ripping pain! It's all over. "Stay away from her!" Blood is everywhere. I'm dieing.

"I'm not dieing!" I scream.

"Dude, chill out." Ricochet said. "I guess psychic types have nightmares sometimes too, huh?"

I was me again. I reached up with one of my hands to make sure. _Yeah, I'm me._ I checked out the area. I was leaned against the chair Lin was sleeping in. _Did I start here?_

"You ok?" Ricochet said.

"Yeah. Just a bad dream. You can go to bed." I said.

The eevee clinched his furry nose. "I would but any moment now Lin will wake up and move us out."

I checked the window. The first rays of sunshine were coming through. _Could I really have lost it that bad?_ I tried to remember the dream, or vision. I couldn't quite wrap my head around it. _Was it a dream? Some fantasies? What if it was a vision of the future? Or was it a bit of both?_

Lin's yawn snapped me back to the present. She leapt out of the chair and stretched out. After the usual morning ritual she came up to us. "Alright." She said. "I've got a feeling that today's gong to be a really great day."

_

* * *

I feel like today is going to be a really great day._ The Rocket thought. _I can't believe how lucky I am._

No sooner had he stolen an ultraball from some mans house, the Rocket was called back to base for a job that would take him out of this town. _With any luck, I'll never come back._

The Rocket had spent most of the night researching the pokemon found along the routs he and the other rockets were to travel. He didn't think that he would have time to fish so he ignored the water pokemon.

_Maybe a diglett. They're fast and have got a strong attack. They're very loyal as well._

_Maybe a pidgey. Nah, the only thing a flying type's good for is it's immunity to ground. A rock type is only good defensive wise. And then they've got weaknesses to the most common physical attacks. Normal pokemon are useless so forget a clefairy._ The Rocket shuddered at this. _Oddish? Ekans? Growlithe? Drowzee? Vulpix?_

The Rocket continued like this for a while. For every benefit, there seemed to be just as many weaknesses. But the Rocket knew that it wasn't only that. The trick this time would be to find a pokemon that could actually be equal to him._ I don't need a pokemon, I need a partner._

The next morning came with out the Rocket finding an answer. He and the other Rockets in the group set off. They were to deliver some goods to Viridian city. The rockets were the escort. The Rocket was the mule.

"This is degrading."

"This is your _job_."

The Rocket looked at the others. Each was a long time member of team Rocket, which he found a bit odd. "Why don't we have a pokemon doing this?"

"Shut up and pull your wagon."

Trailing behind the Rocket was a shiny red wagon. The Rocket would have preferred to carry the cargo on his back but the leader of the group said that the goods would be too heavy for him. Still, the Rocket would have rather faint from exhaustion than die of embarrassment. "Seriously, I look like a little brat following his older brother's friends."

"That's the idea."

Of course the Rocket knew that they couldn't walk around in public in full uniform. Still… "Is the 'I-"heart"-Pikachu' sweater really necessary?"

"Orders from the top, little buddy."

_I need to start making a list of all the people I'm gong to _fix_ when I reach the top._

The goods in the wagon were wrapped up in a tarp. The specifics of what the "goods" were, the Rocket was not told, but it felt like a wagon full of rocks and injured pride; which is hard to carry even on a good day.

"Alright, when we enter the cave, we circle the newbie. Keep the digletts off and move quickly. If we stay too long we'll be overwhelmed."

The rockets were headed towards Diglett's Cave. The cave served as a short cut between Vermilion and Viridian. The team leader was right to plan to move fast. Not that the Rocket was scared of the earthen darkness of the cave, but if you were not there to catch a diglett it could be dang annoying trying to escape the infestation.

One of the grunts turned to the Rocket. "Let's hope your bad luck doesn't do us in."

The Rocket was about to remind them all that the quickest way to bring bad luck was to acknowledge its existence, when a voice beat him to it.

"You should never make statements like that." The voice was slow, but very purposeful. "You are begging for something bad to happen."

The rockets looked around but found nothing. The entrance to Diglett's Cave was in sight. Boulders and shrubbery covered the area. The voice seemed to be echoing. None of them could tell which bolder the stranger might be hiding behind.

The Rocket, however, had more experiences with this kind of voice. _Psychic type!_ The Rocket fumbled through the pokemon found in this area. _Drowzee! What do they do again? Not one of the strongest pokemon. Relies on sending pokemon or humans to sleep before- oh crap!_

The Rocket was about to warn the others, when the first two dropped.

"He's putting us to sleep!" the Rocket managed to get out before he saw a flash of yellow and brown. He had a faint sensation of falling before-

* * *

Travel by pokeball is definitely the way to go. It's always roomy, the temperature is a consistent 73 degrees, and having no physical form also has its benefits. No itching, no hunger, no exhaustion; it's truly incredible. I can't imagine why Ricochet would not like to travel this way. He was always in Lin's arms or, in this case, a shopping basket supported by her forearm since her hands were full of super potions and such. Of course, I get to communicate with and see the outside world where he would be isolated. _Ah the benefits of being psychic._

"You never stay in one place long enough for me to understand what the other customers are talking about." Ricochet said. "How can I know that I'm awesome if I don't hear other people say it?"

_That must be it. He doesn't like pokeballs because if he were in one, people couldn't see how stupid he is._

"Can't stay in one place for too long," Lin mattered. "Studies show that the longer you stay in a poke mart, the more money you spend."

"So this is a great place to pick up girls?" Ricochet said.

"What are you talking about?" Lin said. "That makes absolutely no sense."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Ricochet said. "I meant to say guys, not girls."

"Wha-"

"Can I help you ma'am?"

"_You hesitated too long."_ I told Lin and Ricochet privately. _"In the future you should just ignore what Ricochet says, Lin."_

"I'm fine." Lin tried to brush past the salesman. The salesman blocked her escape.

"_You can't run away!"_ I said. _"Block prevents escaping."_

"Lin, use growl!" Ricochet said.

Lin growled, though I couldn't tell if it was directed at the salesman or us.

"Cough syrup's on isle five!" the salesman cheerfully responded.

"_Nice use of counter."_

"Don't give up Lin! Use your confusion attack!"

"I am fine. Just let me find what I'm looking for."

The salesman scratched his head. "So do you need help?"

"_It worked!"_

"Don't let up Lin, finish him off!"

Lin, who was tired of the situation, decided to end the salesman's confusion by stepping on his toes. "Does that answer your question?" she said as she passed the hoping salesman.

"_Nice use of a stomp attack."_

"Personally, I would have gone with poison gas. That would have got him out of there."

"I'm glad _you_ two are getting along so well," Lin growled as she went up to pay for her items. "I can tell that we'll be a great team."

"I think she's just upset they caught the robber. Where was he again, Aza."

"_I might be incorrect, but wasn't it in the back yard?"_

"Wow! Who would have guessed?"

"At least we're getting out of here," Lin said.

"_That's good because people are starting to give you weird looks."_

The cashier certainly was.

"They can't hear you can they?"

"_Only you can understand us Lin."_

"You must look crazy." Ricochet said.

"_Your hair doesn't help either."_

"What's wrong with my hair?"

"Nothing ma'am!" The cashier said.

Lin looked shocked, like she had forgotten all about the cashier. Then she started a deep laugh. "This probably isn't helping."

"Nope, you look even crazier now."

"_Exactly like a raving lunatic."_

"Here's your bag." The cashiers hand shook as he handed the bag to her. "Please come… back?"

* * *

"Too bad your eevee's not able to fight," the Rocket said. He tossed his pokeball onto the ground between us. The pokemon emerged.

"Raticate!"

"Oh no!" Lin said. "What ever will I do?"

"Yes," the Rocket continued, "now I'll get my revenge."

"It's hopeless, eevee," Lin said, "this guy looks too tough. He's also very distinctive. There's no way I could forget him."

"Eevee!" the eevee said.

"Sand attack!" said Lin.

"You can't win." the Rocket said. "Bite!"

The raticate moved fast, just like the Rocket trained him. It brought it's fangs down on the eevee's tail. The eevee started to cry giving the raticate another opportunity to attack. The Rocket ordered the raticate to head butt. The raticate lowered his head and took aim at the still balling eevee. Then the raticate charged his enemy and launched his to the other side or the cavern. And he wasn't done yet. The Rocket ordered the technique takedown to be performed. The raticate then performed the worlds strongest tackle attack and slammed the eevee into the wall of the cave.

"Tackle!" Lin said. "Although, all hope is lost!"

"Raticate, to me!" the raticate was back to his master before the eevee even got back up.

The eevee seemed too terrified to move.

"Yeah, that's probably for the best." said Lin.

"Eevee," said the eevee.

"Don't worry about it," the Rocket said, "this will all be over soon. Takedown, raticate!"

The raticate hit the eevee. The eevee exploded.

"That was too easy." The Rocket said. "Too bad your luck ran out, girl."

"It's over!" Lin cried. "How did I think I could ever defeat you?"

"You're finally mine," the Rocket said. Then he felt a sucking sensation. _Is that the wind? It feels like something is pulling me from every hair on my body._

"No, wait," Lin calmly said. She pointed across the cavern. "It's not over."

The Rocket turned to see an eevee the size of a house staring down at him. "No way," the Rocket said and turned to Lin. "What's going on?"

"We're kicking your trash," Lin said, "just like we always do."

"Always?" Said the Rocket.

"Yeah, always. And by 'always' I mean that if I had ever met you before in my life besides this one time, I would have kicked your butt then also."

"You don't remember…? It doesn't matter." The Rocket said. "We've already seen who the stronger pokemon is."

"Are you going to fight me with that?" Lin said.

Somehow the Rocket's raticate had become a small pillow.

"This is impossible!" the Rocket said. "This can't happen! It's like a bad… oh, wait."

The Rocket slowly pried his eyes open and shook himself out of the dream. "Uhg. I can't even win in my dreams." Now that he was certain that he was back in reality, the Rocket glanced around. The other rockets were still asleep, passed out, limbs pointing every which way.

"I hope that you're all having dreams like mine." The Rocket checked his watch. "Seriously? We've been asleep this long and no one came to help out?"

He checked the ground for foot prints. It was no good. He couldn't tell his footprints apart form the other rockets let alone an unhelpful passerby. The only prints he could distinguish were the small ones left by the drowzee. The paw prints were all around the wagon.

_The goods!_ The Rocket ripped the tarp off to make sure they were untouched. What he saw was a large bundle of red sticks. It had a few buttons around a digital interface but other than that it was all wire and rods. The wires ran into a piece of the device that looked like it could receive some sort of electric signal.

It took a few second for the Rocket to realize what he was looking at. "It's a bomb. It's a remote detonation bomb!"

The Rocket tucked the tarp back around the wagon, taking the time to make it look as if undisturbed. _Someone is trying to kill me? No, that administrator could have authorized my assassination in a less flashy manner._ He looked at the mouth of the Diglett's Cave. _They must have wanted it to look like a cave in, but why not just get the boss's authorization to kill another rocket? Unless, they didn't want the boss to know._

He glanced over each his comrades. _One of them would have found a way to break off from the group, detonate, than tell Giovanni the tragic story of the cave-in. but why this group? What threat do these grunts pose?_

A ray of dying sunlight reflected into the Rockets eyes from somewhere on the ground. He looked around to find the course. There was something shinning near one of the grunts. _It must have fallen out of his pocket when he dropped, asleep._ Upon closer inspection, the Rocket found that the object was a disk. It didn't look like any disk he'd ever seen. It was smaller, and the readable side was multicolored, as if it were made of crystal.

_No one carries something like this around for the heck of it. Is this why someone was trying to kill us?_

One of the grunts stirred. The Rocket pocketed the disc and lay back down in an awkward position. He made sure he was the last one to "wake up". He also acted surprised when one of the Rockets started to swear and made everyone turn back to their HQ.

_I'll get down to the bottom of this. Nobody gets away with messing with me._

* * *

"_It's not very strong_,_"_ I said._ "Then again, that's never _stopped_ you from making a pokemon part of your team."_

"You better be referring to the only pokemon on this team with no attacking moves," Ricochet said.

"I know it seems silly," Lin said, "but I've wanted one ever sense I was a little kid."

"_As oppose to the grown up fourteen-year-old you've become?"_ I said.

"Besides, cubones are ground type. That's useful against electricity and a bunch of other types."

"I'm still trying to picture getting along with a pokemon that wears its mother's skull. That seems just a tad morbid," Ricochet said. "Ha! I used a cool word."

"_It's probably awkward at family reunions."_ I said. _"Ah, just look at you. You have your father's eyes and your mother's face."_

Lin chuckled. Ricochet followed Lins cue although he didn't understand what I just said.

"Well, let's worry about that later. What matters now is getting to Lavender town."

"I still can't see why we don't go with the other trainers to Vermilion city." Ricochet said. "Why is going through a tunnel with a bunch of trainers that are fresh from the city and rearing to battle such a bad… you know what, never mind."

"_Isn't it embarrassing when the answer to your question is so obvious that simply asking it will give you the answer?"_ I said.

"Shut up Aza."

"Shut up both of you," Lin said. She ducked down a bit and pointed ahead of us. There were a few trainers standing around chatting.

"We're going to avoid them. It's a long way to Lavender town and I'm not sure if there is a pokemon center in-between. With an entire cave between us and Lavender, it's best if we just avoid unnecessary battles." She pointed to a smaller path a little off the route. "Let's by pass them there."

"No arguments here." Ricochet said.

However, I had an argument. _This trip is going to be extremely boring if we avoid problems the whole way. And whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Yes, she'll thank me for this._

As soon as we were about to slink off into the side path, I called out of my pokeball to the other humans. "Your mother is a tauros and your father smells of glooms."

"Aza!" Lin and Ricochet said.

"What did you say?" the trainers were approaching now. None looked too happy.

Lin's mind must have been working hard to find a way out. Discovering there was none, she tried to minimize. "Yeah, you." She pointed to one of the boys who took a step back. Whether he did that for the insult or the sound of Lin's awful voice was irrelevant. I was pleased to see Lin had correctly picked the weakest of the group. "Don't tell me you don't remember me!

The singled out trainer's friends turned to him. The poor guy looked blankly at Lin. "Err, no I…"

"You two-timing jerk! I'll never forget what you've done!"

Now the trainer's friends' faces turned from irritation to a look of amusement.

"Dude, Jimmy. I can't see why you let this one go," one of them said, "she was a keeper."

"Uhm, Clarissa?" Jimmy said. He couldn't have been more than sixteen. None of his friends could. They were all pubescent morons. However, it appeared that Jimmy had a history with the ladies. We could use that.

"Clarissa?" Lin said. "Is that her name? Where is she? I'll scratch her eyes out!"

Jimmy's friends laughed as Jimmy tried to back pedal. "No! Not Clarissa. Uhm, you're… Samantha!"

Lin let out a fake cry of furry, and pushed Ricochet out onto the field. "I'm going to beat you, you mankey butt!"

"Wait!" said Jimmy, "I'm still confused!"

"You're not alone dude," Ricochet said.

Jimmy pulled out a pokeball. "Go pidgeotto!" unless you are phonically deft, you could probably tell that this must was an evolution to pidgey. It was larger though, and had exaggerated feathers which I don't think helped it fly at all. The color scheme was much the same as I'm sure the lower level must be. In short, an unimpressive change.

"That's incredible!" said Ricochet, "I've never seen a pokemon that resembles anything like you before. Those big feathers must help you fly pretty fast! This is going to be a very tough battle!"

"_In more ways than one, Ricochet,"_ I said.

"Where did that voice come from?" the pidgeotto said.

"Oh, it's an abra in a pokeball. Don't mind him. He just makes thinly veiled sarcastic remarks. Seriously, that's all he does."

_I hope you enjoy pain Ricochet._

"Pidgeotto, quick attack!" Jimmy said.

The bird flicked his wings and with what seemed minimal in terms of effort, appeared before the eevee. Ricochet barely had any time to realize that the pidgeotto cleared the distance between them so fast. He was stunned as the flying type bashed against him with a feather coated chest.

Ricochet made some sort of reaction noise, and then said, "Geez, was that necessary? You're probably faster than me anyway."

"We must be going for style points." The pidgeotto said.

"Quick attack is a move that-" Lin began.

"I think the name gives it away Lin," Ricochet shouted back.

"Ok then," Lin said, sounding a little put out, "Tactic One!"

"_Ah, the fake tackle. Too bad you can only use it once Lin."_ I said.

The eevee ran to the pidgeotto, and then moved as if to tackle. The pidgeotto hopped back, creating more space between the eevee and itself. Unfortunately for the pidgeotto, Ricochet twisted in the air, landed back facing the pidgeotto, and let the weak pokemon get buried in a sand attack.

A few of Jimmies friends made appreciating grunts. Jimmy himself was stunned, which Lin took full advantage of.

"Now!"

Ricochet followed up with a tackle attack. The pidgeotto stood there like a fool, waiting for an order from its trainer.

"Tackle, Ricochet!" Lin said.

Ricochet was moving to attack again when Jimmy finally snapped out of his trance. "Gust!"

"Sand attack!" Lin said. Ricochet was use to random switches so he managed to turn himself around fast enough to perform a sand attack.

The gust and the sand attack met in midfield. At first I thought Lin's strategy was to push the gust back at the pidgeotto. It wouldn't work though. The gust seemed to absorb the sand attack and kept moving, like some opaque sand funnel.

"Hit him low!" Lin said.

Ricochet turned back to face the incoming attack. Keeping himself low to the ground, not difficult for him, Ricochet bolted through the gust. As the sand funnel hit him, it dissipated, leaving a haze of dust in the air that completely obscured the other side of the battlefield. The only indication of what happened came from the pidgeottos gasp. Ricochet must have used the dust haze as a cover to tackle the pidgeotto.

When the dust settled, Lin and I could see that the pidgeotto had taken a serious hit. _Ricochet must have caught him completely off guard._ And then I thought, _this battle is going far too smoothly. I need to liven this up a bit._ It took me a second to get a hold of eevee's mind, but after that I stood ready to twist Lin's orders.

"Ricochet, use tackle!" Was what Lin said.

"Ricochet, use iron tail!" Was what Ricochet heard.

Ricochet collided with another gust attack, and then continued to the pidgeotto. When he got close enough, Ricochet twisted himself. His tail became condensed and heavy, and the momentum of his charge carried it around to clash against the flying type.

"What was that?" most of Jimmy's friend said at once.

"You call that a tackle attack?" the pidgeotto said. He got to his feet but you could tell he wouldn't be there long.

"Tackle? No that's…" Ricochet looked over his shoulder at Lin. She was looking down at the only pokeball on her belt, a.k.a. me. "Oh shoot. Sorry Lin."

"We'll deal with it latter," Lin muttered. "Finish it Ricochet."

Ricochet commenced to start up the consistent tackle part of the battle. The pidgeotto, having lost any hope of winning, put up minimal protest before being knocked unconscious.

"Seriously," one of Jimmy's friends said, "what was that?"

"Why should I tell you?" Lin screamed. She marched off leaving several confused faces behind her.

* * *

"Pound, hypnosis, disable… an evolution at a semi early level." The Rocket muttered to himself. He was holding up a book while standing in line to use a public computer. The book was about drowzees. At first the Rocket had been skeptical that he would find anything of value in the small library, but in hind sight he should have guessed that a pokemon who lived so close to Vermilion would have a book here.

"Two potential special abilities, 'insomnia' to prevent sleep condition or 'oblivious' to prevent infatuation." He peeked over his book to check the line. He was only a few people away. The Rocket had the strange disk with him. He wanted to see if a regular disk drive would be able to read it. Using a computer at the rocket HQ could have sent up flared so the Rocket decided to kill two pidgeys with one stone. _Besides, I need to know more about that drowzee._

"Have you heard about that drowzee?" a random character said to another plot character. "You know the one that's been going around putting people to sleep?"

"Yeah. I hear that he's the most aggressive drowzee this town has had since the war."

_Well this is extremely convenient._ The Rocket thought. He pretended to read while straining his ears to pick up the rest of the conversation.

"I hear that a group is going after him soon."

"I hope they bring a pokeball big enough. That thing must weigh a ton after all the dreams he's been eating. How man victims have there been?"

"We may not know them all but people say it's been at least thirty."

"Scary. I don't want any of my dreams to be eaten. When's that group going out?"

"Tomorrow morning."

The two continued to talk but the Rocket had heard enough. He left the line and returned the library book to an incorrect shelf. _I'll have to make this quick. The disk can wait. It has to be now._ The Rocket was relying on the confusion back at HQ to move around freely. Any day now his fellow Rockets were going to remember that he wasn't to be left out of their sights. On top of that, he had some team going after his target. _Doesn't matter._ The Rocket thought. _By tomorrow that drowzee will be mine._

* * *

"Gah!" Ricochet started shaking his head. "Brain constipation. I can't think. Lin, is this a new move?"

"Oh, yeah. Just forget it." Lin said.

"What?"

"It's only growl. Just ignore the feeling and it will go away."

The eevee closed his eyes and tried to focus on something other than his brain freeze. I imagine it must have been food or pillows, the only objects that can hold Ricochets attention for long.

"Ok," Ricochet said opening his eyes, "it's gone. Wait, why didn't you want me to learn a new move?"

"_Growl falls into the same category as tail whip. Useless. I could suggest a few other things that fall into that category."_

"It's not useful to you," Lin said, "and, yes, it's not a really great move."

"_So let me get this straight, Ricochet is learning less useful moves."_

"At least I know useful moves!" Ricochet said. "Let's face it. With out me, you'd both be toast. I'm the heavy hitter on this team." After a pause, he said, "And by heavy hitter I meant that I do all the damage and not that I'm fat."

"_We understood that you were referring to your mussels and not your extreme excess of body fat."_

"That won't last for long," Lin said. "Eevees aren't big on doing damage. Aza will take that roll before too long."

"Then what does that leave me?"

"_Sidekick."_

"There's no way I'm playing taillow to his crobat."

"We are all part of a team," Lin said. "Each of our roles is equal in importance."

"_Except, my role is more equal than anyone else's."_

"Who says your even part of this team?" Ricochet said. "It looks like you're just using us to have fun. What do you help us with?"

"_If you weren't paying attention, I was captured against my will. I might as well have fun while I'm on your team."_

"Being part of a team is different them being on a team," Lin said.

"Oh no," Ricochet said, "that sounds like an opening line to one of your philosophical monologs. What's the lesson we learn today, oh great one."

Lin eyed Ricochet before continuing. "You're the first pokemon I've ever captured Aza. I don't exactly know how this works with other trainers but I'm starting to see a problem. You were captured against your will. You were forced to be on this team. I don't think that how I want it to be."

"It worked out ok for us." Ricochet said.

"_Fortunately not all of us are you."_ I was interested though. _What's Lin trying to say. Not that she'll set me free. No trainer does that._

"I keep thinking that it all comes down to a matter of trust." Lin said. "Ricochet and I weren't a team until we trusted each other."

"And in order for that to happen you had to realize how awesome I am." Ricochet said.

Lin continued on. "At first I would give him an order and he would ignore what I said. It was like we were fighting two separate battles. It feels that way with you, Aza."

"_Who's winning?"_ I said.

"Neither one of us," Lin said. "I would be lying if I said that I wouldn't settle for an abra on my team. Abras are incredibly powerful pokemon. But what I want more is for Aza to be part of the team."

"_So you want trust? Tell you what; see that area further down this path? We'll have to walk switchbacks before we can get down. It will take forever. I'll teleport you down there if you let me. It should save us at least twenty minutes. We might be able to get a poke center before night fall."_

Lin stopped to think. "Ok. Let's give it a go. What do I do?"

"_Nothing, but that's beside the point. Now just give me a second."_ I focused on where I wanted to go. I'd never brought human being with me while teleporting and never something this big. _"Here we go."_ I ripped apart Lin's and my molecules and sent us through the air. After that, I reassembled us on the hill side.

"That was unpleasant," Lin said. "No offence, but I'll never take you up on that deal again."

At that point we heard yelling from above us. Lin looked up the path to see a small brown and furry pokemon shouting at us.

"_It's a good thing we're too far away to hear what he's saying."_

"You left Ricochet behind!" Lin said.

"_You'll thank me latter."_

"Now we're gong to have to back-track this whole area. It's gong to take forever."

"_Or I could just teleport you again."_

"Save it," Lin said. Then we both started back up the trail. "Talk about a giant step backwards."

Of course, I couldn't tell if she was talking about the trail or our relationship.

_

* * *

No thought. Wait._ The Rocket kept perfectly still. Form his vantage point he was certain he would see the drowse long before the drowzee saw him. It was the psychic sense that worried the Rocket. He doubted that drowses ever looked up. And from on top of a boulder by digletts cave, the Rocket would have a pretty clear shot if the drowzee came by here.

The Rocket knew he would. He knew that a serial dream thief like this drowzee would be back in town every night. And in order to feast on the towns dreams, the drowzee would have to pass through this area.

Night was falling rapidly. The Rocket was wearing dark clothes, though not his uniform. He figured that he might as wall blend into the night; just one more way for him to sneak up on his victim.

As soon as the moon appeared, the Rocket heard something trudging down the path.

_You're quite the bold one._ The Rocket thought.

The drowzee stepped into view. The Rocket knew that this must be the drowzee he was looking for because it was much fatter than any drowzee he'd ever seen on television or in any textbook.

_Just a little closer._

The drowzee seemed to sense something at the end. It was at least aware enough to turn around and see the ultraball before it smashed into his face. After that, it was only a few wobbles then- click!

The Rocket let lose his maniacal laughter, something he saved for victories. He hadn't done it in a while and it felt good.

"_My, my, aren't you the dramatic one."_ The Rocket heard the voice in his head. It was slow but methodical, even cold. _"Are you going to do a jig now?"_

The Rocket was shaken up a bit. This wasn't wholly unexpected but a clear and distinct voice in your head could be unsettling for anyone. "Actually," the Rocket said. He sighed, and then continued. "I was hoping we could be friends."

The drowzee was silent for a breath, and then let out a slow sarcastic laugh, purposefully drawing out each syllable, "Ha. Ha. Ha." After another pause, the drowzee decided to add in another "Ha."

"Excuse me," the Rocket said, "this is far more awkward than I expected."

"_What did you think was going to happen?"_ the drowse said.

"I had a mental picture of us in a grass field with a rainbow."

"_You're not helping this situation get any less awkward."_

"Listen, I need to talk to you for a little. If you don't want anything to do with me after this then I'll release you. Just hear me out first."

"_You're not great at opening up are you?"_ the drowzee sighed, at least mentally, than said, _"Fine. Let's get this over with."_

"I'm tired of losing to sentimental idiots. I know that I'm a far superior trainer than anyone I've fought, still I lose. I refuse to believe that the secret is friendship or love but I'm missing something. I think that I need time, time with one pokemon. I think that it comes down to a matter of trust. I would like to see if I can trust you."

The drowzee said nothing for a while. The Rocket started to think the drowzee was preparing a nasty comeback. What the Rocket got instead was another sigh. _"If you really want a working relationship, I would refrain from giving another speech like that."_

"Then rule number one has been established."

"_Now, let's take this all again from the top. If I decide we don't make a good team, you'll let me go? You do this because, no wait- I've covered all I want to. I'm sorry to inform you I will not be-"_

"You!"

The Rocket turned to see a fellow rocket running toward him. _It's the guy that had the disk._ When the grunt reached him, the Rocket said, "Hey we aren't suppose to mee-"

"Take this." The grunt thrust a file into the Rocket's hands. "These are orders. Get to Lavender town as fast as possible."

"Hey, I don't take orders from a grunt!"

"I'm no grunt. I'm undercover." The not-grunt turned back and looked behind him as if Darkrai himself were after him.

_What's gong on here?_ The Rocket thought. "Listen, I don't know-"

"I know you have it."

The Rocket froze. He thought about the crystal disk in his pocket. _What have I gotten myself into?_

"No time. I'll hold them off. Run now!" the undercover man pushed the Rocket away.

The Rocket didn't hesitate. He started to run towards the sea route near Lavender town than stopped. _No, use your head. They'll catch up. I've got to head in a different direction. If I go up past Cerulean again, I can take the Rock Tunnel route. By the time whoever I'm running from finds out what I'm doing, it will be too late._ The Rocket doubled back but made sure he stayed close to the mountain side. _With any luck, they'll go right past me._

When the Rocket got to diglett cave again, he hugged the wall. That's when he heard the shouts. He risked a quick peak down towards the route. It was getting darker now, so the Rocket could only make out a few shadowy figured. There seemed to be five of them. The Rocket saw a flash of a pokeball and a few moments later there were only four figures. Another noise sounded, and all four took off in the direction the Rocket just came from.

The Rocket then thought of the drowzee inside the pokeball on his belt. "I'm sorry, can we postpone our awkward conversation?"

"_I'll think of this as a test run,"_ the drowzee said. _"By the way, my name is Baku."_

"And mine is-"

* * *

"So when are we going to say it?" Ricochet said.

"Don't do it," warned Lin.

"_I don't think it's absolutely necessary,"_ I said from inside my pokeball. _"It could be an unspoken truth."_

"Except, it's false," Lin said.

"If we don't say it then Lin might think we didn't notice," Ricochet said.

"_True, but we shouldn't belittle her," _I said. _"We cannot afford to have her lose her self-confidence."_

"I've got this, ok?" Lin said.

"I think that she could afford to lose a little self-confidence in this area," Ricochet said. "We might not find ourselves in this situation if she were a little bit more careful."

"_That's assuming that Lin learns from her mistakes," _I said. _"I've seen little evidence to suggest she does."_

"I didn't hear any of you speak up a mile ago," Lin said.

"You would think the problems we had in Mt. Moon would teach her a lesson."

"_You would think she…"_

"I'm not lost!" Lin growled.

"_Well if she's going to admit it herself then I hardly see any reason for us to tell her."_

"True." Ricochet said.

"I think I liked pokemon better when I couldn't understand you." I sensed that Lin had stopped. "We'll make camp here."

The walls of energy that kept me bound, burst open and I was flung outside. It was twilit and we couldn't' be further from Rock Tunnel. I never came this way before, but if my psychic senses were any indicator, then we were closer to Cerulean now than we were five hours ago. As soon as the sun came up, Lin would be in for a surprise.

"So, how was growing up on the outside," Ricochet, the world's most annoying eevee, interrupted my meditation. He often does this. I have a theory that he doesn't think and, thus, cannot stand to see others have such an advantage.

"The outside of what?" I said.

"You know, outside of the farm, or where ever they raise abras."

"I assume it's much the same as an eevee farm, minus the practices that made you a wimp. Although, perhaps I'm wrong, and you were just born this way?"

If Ricochet had learned growl, I'm sure he would have. Instead he said, "I heard that I have a clipboard some where. Maybe it shows who my parents were."

"Most likely they're eevee's 26-7 and 8-6."

"What's your problem?" Ricochet said. "I'm trying to be nice."

"A failing strategy, especially if the pokemon you're attempting to befriend wants nothing to do with you."

"Aza!" Lin called me over to her. While us pokemon were attempting to communicate, she had been setting up a camp. It was immediately clear all of her equipment was homemade, probably from old clothing.

"Looks sturdy," I said.

"I'm going to assume that you're being sincere."

"You know what happens when you assume."

"Are you sure that you're ok with sleeping in a pokeball?" Lin said. "Or do you even need to sleep right now? I can always come up with something to do."

"Nah, if I get bored I'll just rummage through your dreams."

"What?"

"Oh, I've been meaning to ask, do you like Derf or do you 'like' like Derf?"

"I don't think that…"

"You've got some serious problems in there," I said. "Is it because Blue bullied you?"

"That's enough." Lin said.

"Or is it because your parents abandoned you?"

"Stop."

"Oh, and what happened with your father? What did he do to-"

"GO AWAY!"

I nearly jumped out of my skin. Lin's growl was almost painful. "Hey, if-"

"IT'S OVER!" Lin ripped my pokeball off her belt and snapped it at the hinges. As she chucked it to the ground, I sensed the loss of our connection. She was releasing me.

"GET AWAY! I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!" Lin's voice came out in a screech, tearing at my eardrums.

"Lin…" Ricochet said.

"GO NOW!" Lin screamed.

I left. I teleported away without a clear picture in my mind. I just needed to leave.

_What happened?_

I sat, replaying the entire scene in my mind.

_Why did I push her? I could tell that she was getting angry. I didn't think that she would go so far. Where did I miscalculate?_

It was around then I became aware of my surroundings. I was sitting outside Cerulean, to the north. "Home, sweat home."

"And why should I care about Lin?" I was talking out loud, never a good sign. "Now I can get back to the real fun."

* * *

"_Why walk?" _Baku said. _"I thought we were running for our lives."_

"Nothing's more conspicuous then a boy running through a city at night." The Rocket muttered. While he knew that he could hear Baku, he doubted that anyone else could. "Even more conspicuous would be a boy talking to no one."

"_If you told them I was a voice in your head, I'm sure they would understand."_

The Rocket had a witty comment for that, but a group of boys emerged from the shadows in front of the Rocket. "It's them!" he hissed as he dove into the shadows. _Please let them not see me!_

"She beat the crap out of you."

"Oh, come off it Zack. You know it's only because of that weird move. It can't be legal."

_It's not them. It's just some kids._

The first voice, Zack, said "True, but what a move. She's… interesting."

A new voice chimed in. "Yeah, for a chubby midget she sure knew how to battle."

"I don't even remember dating anyone that small." The boy that got beat said.

"It's not fat, dude," another boy said. "It's all that clothing she's wearing."

"And what was up with that voice?"

The boys laughed, and then faded back into the night. The Rocket emerged from his hiding place. He checked the direction the group came from.

"It's the route to Rock Tunnel. Of course, _she_ would have to be there."

"_You know who they were talking about?"_ said Baku.

"Oh yeah, don't worry, you'll meet her soon," the Rocket said.

"_Just because she is on the same path doesn't mean we'll meet her."_ Baku couldn't hide the curiosity in his voice. _"I mean, what are the chances?"_

The Rocket spared it a moment of thought. "One hundred percent."

* * *

I was already bored. It couldn't have been more than two hours since the… incident. I had been sitting and starring across Cerulean for two hours. Of course I had tried to come up with a plan, with a fun scheme. The only thing I came up with was repeats, a big mental list of cons I've already done to death.

"_I'm sure I'll come up with something latter._ I thought. _I'll just sleep on it. Oh! Now that I'm not connected to Lin, I'll finally be able to dream about… people doing their laundry._

I let my mind relax. _I'll come up with something. It's not like my time with Lin was the most fun I'd ever had._

My body shut down but my mind's eye opened. A vision opened up to me.

_Lin?_

It was the campsite I had left just two hours ago. I could see the makeshift tent and sleeping bay. However, Lin was not in either. She was up, and giving orders to Ricochet.

"Sand attack!"

Ricochet kicked up dirt into-

_A drowzee? Those aren't on that route._

"Pathetic. This really can't be all you've got. Come on!" it was a trainer. He was so familiar.

"Listen," Lin said. "I don't know who you are-"

"No! Of course not!" the boy's anger was apparent. That's when I realized who it was.

_The Rocket!_

"Never mind, finish this Baku."

The drowzee, who I assumed was Baku, unleashed an assault of psychic blows. Ricochet must have been pretty exhausted all ready for he fainted.

"So where's the abra?" the Rockets said.

"He's not here." Lin said.

"Too bad," the Rocket said, "and by that I mean, _great_!"

The Rocket advanced on Lin. Lin dropped into some kind of fighting stance.

"Oh, none of that." The Rocket said. "Baku, if you don't mind."

The drowzee started to send out psychotic waves into Lin's mind. She started to lose consciousness.

"What are you going to do to me?" she struggled to stay up.

"I'm going to give you nightmares for as long as you live," Baku said. Lin fell to the ground, helpless. The drowzee reached out and-

_NO!_

I felt…

_No, I can't let this happen._

The drowzee was in Lin's mind, ravaging her dreams.

"_Get out of there!"_

Dad? Searing pain. They're all dead.

_You can't make her dream this. This can't happen to me._

They're killing us all. Ripping pain!

_Aza's not here. Why am I not there!_

It's all over. Daddy. "Stay away from her!"

_I thought you wanted to make it on your own. Isn't it more fun? This is what it's all about._

Blood everywhere.

_Or maybe not. Maybe you were never happy alone._

I'm dieing.

_Maybe Lin was the best thing that ever happened to you._

"_Father!"_

I ripped myself out of the vision. "Don't be too late. Please let that be a future." I concentrated on the campsite where I left Lin. My psychic powers ripped apart my molecules and I sent myself to where I wanted to be. When I reassembled myself, I opened my eyes to see-

"You can do this Ricochet. Sand attack!"

Ricochet kicked up dirt into the drowzee's face.

"Pathetic," The Rocket said, "this can't be all you've got. Come on."

"Listen," said Lin, "I'm getting serious déjà vu here."

"Really?" the Rocket said. "Is it like you've fought me before?"

"No, but I could swear that I've seen that drowzee somewhere."

"Finish this Baku!"

The drowzee unleashed an assault of psychic blows. Ricochet couldn't take anymore hits. He fainted.

"So, where's the abra?" the Rocket said.

"He's not-"

"I'm right here," I said.

"Aza!" Lin caught sight of me. "You're back?"

"I can't abandon my trainer, can I?"

"Aza, listen. I'm sorry. I-"

"We can exchange apologies latter. Right now I've got a grudge match."

"I'm sorry," Baku said, "but do I know you?"

"No, but I've just got this feeling."

"Does it feel like this?" Baku tried to use confusion on me. Unfortunately for him, I could see it coming a mile away. By the time he finished executing the attack, I had teleported behind him.

"What now, Lin?" I said.

"Do what you do best!" she said.

I teleported to another location, than began to verbally abuse my opponent. "Ok mister personality. Why are you partnered up with this boy? Were you stolen?"

"No, just passing time beating up on weak pokemon." The drowzee tried to beat upon me with another psychic blow. Teleporting, however, is much faster.

"Was that supposed to be intimidating?" The drowzee attacked again, but I was already on my way. "You do realize you look like an Easter egg or a banana dipped in chocolate, right?" Attack, teleport, miss. "Now, who was throwing words like pathetic around? We need him back."

"You must have a very large brain to hold so many bad jokes." Baku said. "Please do me a favor and hold still."

I did nothing to appease Baku's request. "And here I thought psychic pokemon all got along."

"You thought incorrectly," Baku said. "If indeed you are capable of thought."

"Let's face it." I said "You can' touch me. You'll tire yourself out way before I do."

"Then let's change the strategy," the Rocket said. "I hope you know disable Baku."

"Oh, the technique that does this?"

"Aza!" Lin's warning came too late. The drowzee puncture my mind. I could feel an alien psychic power wrap around a section of my motor control. It didn't take me too long to figure out what happened.

"My only question is," I said, "if you could always do that-"

The drowzee slammed his head down on mine. "Shut up."

"Headbutt." Lin said. "Aza, you need to get over to me!"

I could barely make out what she said. I had never been hit like that, never physically at least. I gowned, "This must be how it feels to be Ricochet."

"Aza come on!"

"Here let me help." Baku lowered his head, and then used it to bat me over to Lin.

"Lin…" I've learned that Ricochet is a tough pokemon that can take a hit. My talents lie in other areas. "One more hit like that…"

"I know, here's a berry, we'll make it out of this."

"But I don't know any attacking moves."

"Trust me, Aza," Lin smiled down at me, "we'll be fine."

As I looked up at Lin, I felt-

"Well, I wouldn't want to make a liar out of you."

Energy blossomed in my mind, than ran through my body. I could tell that my body was slowing. It was growing to. The energy filled my mind until it had no where else to go. I had to focus it or it would destroy me. I reached into the metaphysical world and created an object through sheer force of my will. I clutched it in my fist to help me focus. The object felt right.

I looked at Lin, now almost the same height as me. She looked a little shocked but pleased. "You ready now?" she said.

I glanced down at my fist. I was carrying a spoon. "Yes. I think I am." I glanced into Lin's mind and saw her plan. I think she noticed, but she didn't seem to care.

"Can I trust you to do it?"

"Always, Lin."

"You think turning into a kadabra ups your chances?" Baku said. "You do realize you didn't heal when you transformed." The drowzee lowered his head. "Never mind, I'm sure this will all make sense when you wake up."

"I don't think so." I reached out with my mind and cut through Baku's defenses. I placed a fire wall in-between his mind and the part that allowed him to use headbutt correctly.

"Agn." Baku wasn't happy about that. "Fine, then witness the techniques that I'm named for!"

"No Baku!" the Rocket tried to warn him, but of course, far too late.

The psychic type used hypnosis on me. I didn't even bother to resist.

"You know what to do." Lin said before I fell asleep.

I opened my eyes in the metaphysical dreamscape and waited. Soon, Baku appeared before me.

"I hope that you have good dreams. I'm starving." Baku said.

"Really?" I said. "You look like you could stand to lose a few pounds."

"Brave words for someone in your position." He started to advance towards me.

"Oh, you must not have noticed. Pity, I was hoping that you would be a worthy adversary."

The drowzee stopped. "What do you mean? I am the master of dreams. While you're asleep you belong to me."

"And that might be true, if you were awake." I said.

"What?" the drowzee reached out for me, trying to use his power to eat my dreams. Nothing happened. "No! This cannot be! How did you do this?"

"You need to be in sync with your trainer, he told you that using hypnosis on me would be a bad idea."

"How?"

"A special ability of mine called synchronize. See, when I'm affected by a special condition, I pass that condition to my enemy."

"No! I'm still a psychic pokemon. I can still fight you here. My mind still had the power!"

"True." I said. I reached out and started forming and shaping the dream world. "But unfortunately for you," I finished forming a giant spoon over Baku than I started to bend it backwards. "I'm just smarter." I let the spoon snap back on the drowzee. "Sorry, but I'm out of your league."

Baku had only enough time to look up at his impending doom before being crushed.

"But no hard feelings, right?" I said.

* * *

"With a 'stache like that we should dress you up in red overalls." Ricochet said.

I ignored him. "Sometimes I think that you're psychic, Lin. How did you know the drowzee had the oblivious ability instead of insomnia?"

It was morning and we were in the Cerulean pokemon center. When I woke up from my battle, it was enough to frighten away the Rocket. He just recalled the drowzee and took off. After that, I teleported Lin and Ricochet to the pokemon center to finish the night.

Lin thought about my question for a while. "I've heard somewhere that all humans are psychic at some level. Maybe you're right."

"That's unlikely." Ricochet said.

"You need to come up with an original joke," I said.

"But all the good original jokes are already taken," Ricochet said.

"So does this mean that I'm part of the team, Lin?" I said.

Lin let out a short burst of laughter that sounded like a gun going off. "Do you feel like a part of the team?"

"I don't do the whole friendship and love thing."

"Then what do you believe in?"

"You, I suppose."

"We call that trust."

* * *

Across the land, the Rocket waited at the pokemon center at the mouth of Rock tunnel. _That Baku, if he had only listened. We could have won! The question is- should I even keep him? What good is a pokemon that doesn't listen? Maybe I was wrong about this whole thing._

"Mr.?" a nurse called over to what she thought was just an ordinary boy, although to be fair she thought the "I-'heart'-Pikachu" sweater was strange. "Your drowzee is ready."

_Should I bother?_ The Rocket thought. He soon found himself picking up his pokemon and walking out the of the pokemon center.

"_So when do we start training."_ The drowzee spoke with his mind.

"What?" the Rocket whispered.

"_We'll see them again right?"_

"One hundred percent."

"_Then I want to be ready. I won't rest until I leave them with only nightmares."_

The Rocket laughed.

"_What's so funny?"_

"Oh," the Rocket said as he made his way to Rock Tunnel. "Let's just chuck it up to a matter of trust."

**That's all folks!**

**Yeah! I finally get to write a chapter from another person's perspective. Or another pokemon's perspective. Imaginary perspective? Technically it's mine, right?**


	9. Green Flames

**Author's note:**

**Tom Cruise wrote this chapter. But note the one you're thinking of.**

**

* * *

**

**GREEN FLAMES**

"That could work, but have you considered that our opponent might…"

At that point I got tired of listening and looked around to see what the other pokemon and their trainers were doing. Not much. Everyone else left in the morning and even the late crowd was filing out. _This looks like it is going to be an uneventful day. _After the battle with the Rocket, Aza and Lin had been going over boring books and endlessly looking over the notes she kept in her moldy coat. _Boring!_ But I still tried to offer some of my advice, as part of the team.

"I'm really interested in finding out what your strengths are. There are many talents and abilities you have that we could access if we only had the right kind of training," Lin said looking at Aza. They sat close together leaning over a book.

"Yeah, Aza, maybe if you train hard enough you might grow a beard to match that ridiculous mustache."

"The dunce has spoken. He can't add to the conversation so he detracts from it; typical of those whom have no potential. I pity you."

"Enough of this. I won't have you two attacking each other all the time. It's distracting."

"My point exactly," Aza said stroking his pan-handle mustache smoothly.

"Fine, I'll be outside when you decide you can take a joke."

I walked out of that place with my tail held high. _I don't have to take backtalk from Aza. He can kiss my tail for all I care._ We were suppose to have left Cerulean City a week ago, but Lin decided we needed to practice with Aza's techniques more before we headed for the Rock Tunnel.

The sun was right over my head, so I moved my ears to give myself a little more shade. It wasn't like Lin to stay in the pokecenter this late in the day. We were usually out training as early as possible so that Lin could get away from the rest of her pokemon trainer counterparts. We still woke up early as usual, but more of the morning was now dedicated to planning out different battle scenarios and testing Aza's new abilities. A lot of things have been changing lately.

I took a quick sweep of my surroundings. The pokemart caught my attention right away. Many people were going in and out of the shop making a bell chime faintly. As I looked a little farther off I saw the trainers on the outskirts of town heading off to the wilderness to train their pokemon. I would be out there soon with Lin battling my very own grass shaped doppelganger.

Not that I ever enjoyed fighting a lump of grass, but the training had become even more boring lately. All I ever got to do was tackle and sand attack. Tackle and sand attack. There is only so much you can take of doing the same thing over and over before it starts to wear you down. It feels good to change things up every once in a while.

How long were Lin and Aza going to be in the PC anyway? _Boring. Maybe I can go for a walk and come back before its time for training. They probably won't even notice I was missing._ I looked back over my shoulder through the glass door. Lin and Aza were still sitting close hovering over a book. Lin glanced up every so often to look at Aza, who was stroking his mustache with a dumb, spacey look on his face. _They won't even miss me._

_Which way to go?_ A sense of relief and freedom came rushing to my mind. I could go anywhere I wanted to without anyone telling me, "stop doing that, Ricochet" or, "Ricochet, be quiet" or, Lin's favorite, "…

* * *

"What the heck are you talking about?"

"Obviously, I said what I meant. Switching out pokemon is the best way to overcome any status change," I said. _Sometimes these humans get on my nerves. I shouldn't have to repeat myself every-other sentence. _At first I thought that my translating of the human tongue was wrong, or that I was not grammatically correct in my rendition. After a closer review of this species I realized that it was not I, but the inferior function of the human psychosis that was to blame.

"If you did that then you would be left with a full team of burned, poisoned, and paralyzed pokemon," said Lin. "It would be better to heal the status and then continue from there. If you can anticipate the status your opponent is going to use you can prepare your pokemon with a berry and save some time."

"Of course, that is true, but I don't think you are taking into account…"

Lin put her hand up and cut me off. Although she didn't completely turn around to listen, I saw her slightly incline her ear toward a group of newcomers clambering through the pokemon center's sliding door. One was holding what looked like ball of black and green stretched out in front of him, calling out to the nurse behind the counter.

"I'm sorry, nurse. I was on the route east of the city and I got lost. I didn't know where I was and my oddish… there was a pokemon that came out of nowhere. I don't know what happened really. It is all just a big blur."

"These injuries look bad!" Nurse Jennie frowned and leaned forward to take the oddish from the boy. "How old are these? You should have come to me right away. What were you _thinking_ letting oddish stay like this for so long? Such bad burns, I am going to need…" her voice trailed off as she ran to the back room.

Some people in the crowd were scowling at the boy, although, it was nothing compared to the glare the nurse gave him before she ran off. "I couldn't find my way back! I tried, but every time I thought I was going in the right direction I just ended back where I had just left from." His eyes were red where they should be white. I have seen this a few times before when I had played one too many tricks on the same person. He looked resigned, defeated. After I saw that look in someone's eyes I knew that the next trick I played on them would not get a big reaction, that, or they were about to do something unexpected. The crowed seemed to realize the same thing, braking off a few at a time as the boy shuffled toward an open couch on the far wall.

"Interesting," Lin said brow furrowed.

"Common," I replied. "We are in a pokemon center after all. I'm sure you had quite a few similar experiences in the past, given that you started out with a measly eevee."

"Perhaps," she said, but didn't favor me with an explanation of why she was so quick to agree. Usually when I commented on our pathetic associate she grumbled and stopped the inevitable exchange of word between Ricochet and I. It was infuriating how he was so stupid he didn't even realize I had clearly won every argument; like a rattata laughing at a persian while pinned to the ground by a massive paw. Still, there was something hidden in her eyes, in her mind, I couldn't read. Now _there_ was the real challenge.

"Come on," Lin said, "let's get going. We've been in here too long." She was right. We had broken the regular schedule this morning. Usually we were out of the pokemon center before everyone else and didn't come back until all the other trainers were already sitting comfortably by the hearth. A simple property Lin was taking advantage of. The more you practice the better you are; although, there is a danger for one to become unbalanced. Ricochet complained often that she leaned toward the latter.

"Let's get Ricochet and get a move on. I am excited for our training today."

"And what would make this day so different from the past."

"Trust me. The training today is going to be different. I have some good plans to…"

My heart throbbed, and the words Lin just said pulsed inside me. I could feel the word "_different_" pound an almost physical impression into my mind. There definitely would be something _different_ about today's training, but I don't think Lin quite grasped exactly how different it would _really_ be.

This feeling was strange. Usually I had visions and premonitions of the future while I was sleeping. As an abra I needed, comparably, large amounts of sleep. In my evolved state I have more control over the metaphysical powers I posses. Before, I needed that sleep to contain those powers. With this new control granted to me as a kadabra I was able to spend less time sleeping and more time in the present. I still needed to meditate for several hours at a time to master my mind, but it was nothing compared to the time I spent sleeping as an abra. Therefore, the number of dream visions was diminishing.

However, at that moment, I could've used an old fashion vision. Not knowing what was going to happen was not something I was use to. Receiving only bits and pieces of the future, in the sporadic, uncontrolled manner I was beginning to, was almost as bad as not knowing at all. _Almost_. If I could only learn to control these pounding premonitions…

"Aza, come on. Let's go." She was already on her way toward the door with her backpack and coat-pockets stuffed full of potential training items.

"I'm coming."

* * *

"You know, the water isn't that bad when there isn't a giant star and an angry red head swimming around in it, trying to kill you," I said to myself. I was lying down on a river bank watching the goldeen and magicarp swim downstream. They were minding their business, and I was taking needed "me" time.

Being around Aza could get me so worked up. He thought he was so smart and funny, but nobody understood what he was saying. He and Lin were starting to gang up on me even. _What's the deal with that? Shouldn't the trainer be neutral? I mean, if she should be siding with anyone it should be me. I was around longer. We should be closer friends then she is with Know-It-All. She can be so dumb sometimes._

_At least I don't have a dumb mustache._ _It would be so funny if I cut that dumb thing off. Aza would be so mad_. I couldn't help but laugh at this. I was picturing Aza waking up in the morning, reaching up to stroke facial baby blanket, and catching nothing but air. _Ha! What a sucker._ I wondered what he would do to get even though.

_He could shave my tail. Or shave all if me._ _Wow._ I didn't realize that I have so much more hair than he did. "No one likes a hairless eevee." It was an old saying on the farm. Although, I shudder to think of how the saying originated.

He could get me back ten times over. _I could just pound him down if he tried to do anything back to me though, right? Maybe not. Aza is much stronger now that he isn't an abra anymore. I don't know what he could do to me._ I pictured the drowzee that he took on not too long ago. _I wonder what Aza did to him. _It's not like I had actually seen the battle, given that I was momentarily preoccupied with a greater concern, my well being, butLin told me about the fight later on when Aza wasn't listening. I didn't understand much of what she said, but what she did say sounded like trouble.

"It's not fair!"

A magicarp eyed me warily as it scuttled through the water as fast as its flimsy tailfin could take it. I hit the edge of the water with my paw making a splash to scare off any others that were moving too slow.

_I need to be stronger._

_Isn't that what training is for?_

And so started the battle of conscience.

_Not the kind of training I am doing with Lin telling me what to do all the time. I need real experience fighting, not wasting my time with a grass doll._

_You don't think you are learning from Lin?_

_Yeah, I learned from Lin all the time, but there are some things Lin can't teach me. Some things you have to learn on your own, with real battles with real pokemon. I'm not going to take a back seat to that looser Aza._

_Good point…_

_I got you there, didn't I conscience?_ _That's right, who's the winner_?

_You are._

When I look back now, it's harder for me to answer that question.

* * *

"Riiicocheeeet! Where are you?" Lin and I had now walked around the pokemon center twice. Each of her calls were drawing more and more attention as they grew louder and louder. Many of the regular town-folk were watching us now. Some of them even tried to approach to offer Lin help. Kind souls; Arceus knows she needs it.

"He's a small, brown eevee?" a man in a blue jacket was talking to Lin. He had an emblem sewn onto the upper left breast of his coat that looked like a bicycle flying down a narrow road. He worked for the bike shop just to the south of us.

"Yeah, he has big ears and a puffy tail with some white at the end. And a white main thing." She bent over and put her fingers next to her ears trying to show the shop keeper what eevee looked like. I thought she looked more like a sick orange bug that was going to have lower back problems in the near future. Apparently, so did the shopkeeper.

"I don't know if I have ever seen an eevee before."

"He's kind of like a meowth. Or a growlithe. A meowth, growlithe thing."

"You forgot to mention the dumb look he has on his face all the time." I didn't try to impersonate. "Lin, I'm sure if this man knew what we were talking about he would have told us something useful by now." I could see the picture this guy had in his mind. It looked like a furry, fire breathing worm, in an orange winter coat, with giant antennae and a coin on it forehead.

"You must be one heck of a trainer." The man said before he briskly walked away.

Lin straightened, fingers still pointing up from the top of her ears. "What was that about?"

"You don't want to know."

* * *

My wild eevee nature was kicking in. The wind was soft, and I could hear the trees rustle as it passed by.

"COME ON YOU LAZZY SCALE BRAINS COME OUT AND FIGHT ME!" I bellowed at the fish below. "YOUR GONNA GET WHAT'S COMING TO YOU." I didn't get much of a reaction out of the bigger guys, but most of the magicarp barreled off in every direction accepted toward yours truly. _I might have to try my luck with the tall grass. I hate the tall grass._ I turned to head off to an area where I could train that I could see a little farther down the trail. Then I added as an afterthought, "COWARDS!" I flipped my tail up, the international gesture of contempt, and stalked off. _Probably couldn't learn anything from them anyway._

A big open field stretched out a little way down from the road. The river moved more slowly through here. I saw big sticks fixed in the air with fury plumes on the end of them. They looked a lot like my tail. I could smell something sweet in the air. From where I was up on the road I could see all of this wild stuff. Most importantly I could see the tall grass waving back and forth, telling me to come. I was ready. I stretched out my claws and leg muscles and began to canter down the hill side.

I didn't have the clearest idea of what I was looking for exactly, but I knew that I wasn't finding it. Yelling challenges left and right didn't seem to work, and running through the grass just made my ears sticky with plant juice. I had a goal though. I was going to train and be stronger.

_What's a quick way to get stronger?_ _Maybe I could ask one of the pokemon that live in this dump to help me learn a trick that will help me in a battle._ The only problem is I haven't run into any pokemon. That's the problem with these wild types, they always show up when you are in a hurry and need to get somewhere else, but as soon as you are looking for one, they disappear.

"I have had enough of this guy tromping around." I heard a voice. It was close, too close. I couldn't see anyone around though. _I hate tall grass._

"Yeah, he ran right over me and didn't even stop to apologize." These voices were strange, I hadn't heard them before. They were sticky and slow. Now that I had stopped my search through the grass I started to notice more about my surroundings. For one, I couldn't tell which direction to go to find the road I just left. _I have_ _no escape route_. Two, I could hear irregular rustling all around me. _I'm surrounded._ And three, the sweet smell I sensed earlier had grown to into a sickly, syrupy aroma that hung like mist in the air_. I'm in trouble._

"This guy needs to take a chill pill. You all with me bros?" There was murmured agreement. The too sweet sent was making it hard to breathe. The voices seemed right on top of me, but I still couldn't see a thing, just a bunch of grass, leaves, and yellow bell-shaped flowers. That is, yellow bell-shaped flowers with glaring eyes.

"I wonder why the flowers are so mad." I yawned. My surroundings were drifting in and out of focus. "Do any of you guys want to join me for a nap?"

"Now, that's more like it, dude. Just relax there's no need to be in such a hurry all the time."

* * *

Although the day seemed nice enough, I was in a foul mood. There were several reasons. First, the day was beautiful, a perfect day for training, and I was stuck with Lin trying to find a lazy runaway; Second, it was _Ricochet_ we were looking for; and third, I didn't even want to find Ricochet. In fact, one might say I was trying _not_ to find Ricochet, and striving to convince Lin we didn't need his indolent butt on this team. She wouldn't have it though.

"Look at us. We are wasting a whole day of training searching for him. 'What is the point?' I ask myself." I said loudly, and knew she couldn't ignore. I sallied over to a smallish rock and lifted it up. "Nope, not under this one," I said trying to sound disappointed. It would have been nice to find the flattened eevee under a rock. We could end the search and be rid of Ricochet. _Two bird with one stone._

Chuckling at my joke I turned to see how Lin was faring. She was busy combing through all the grass.

"All we have left is the east and the south. There are tons of trainers on the east side that could have spotted Ricochet. Plus, there is only one way forward from there, through the Rock Tunnel, and I highly doubt he has gone into the Rock Tunnel by himself, or with anyone else for that matter."

We started to head back into town with Lin doing the trail blazing and me following with a light jog behind her. I knew she wanted to go faster, but the fact that I was even jogging for Ricochet made my stomach uneasy. I had asked her to return me to the pokeball, but she refused, insisting that I could aid her in the search and asking that I remain alert.

"Riiicooocheeet! Riiiicooocheeet!" Lin called steadily.

"Excuse me, Miss," said a boy, with blond hair that fell smoothly to his chin and a sharp featured face, for a human. He looked about the same age as Lin, but appeared neat in his soft white jacket and bright blue shirt. He addressed her from the edge of town as we were on our way in.

"I don't have time for a battle if that is what you are looking for," Lin said, slowing her jog, but ready to blow passed him. She had used the same technique on a few of the youngsters we met earlier in the day.

"Well, I was, but I can see you are looking for someone. May I help?"

"I don't know. Have you seen an eevee by himself today?"

"Did he belong to you?"

"So you _have_ seen him?" Lin's eyes grew wide with hope.

"Oh, no, sorry. Sorry, I was just trying to rule out whether or not another trainer had captured him. I have not seen an eevee today; nonetheless, I would still like to aid you in your search of the missing pokemon."

"He _is_ my pokemon, and his name is Ricochet, and my name is Lin."

The boy extended his pale skinned hand and said, "My name is Zack, nice to meet you, face to face." Then he glanced down at me and wink. "And I suppose this is your pokemon as well?"

"I am indeed," I said, prodding the outer edges of his mind. I don't like winks. I have seen large amounts of evidence to conclude a wink is a strong indicator that one is untrustworthy. I tried to delve a little deeper into his thought process, but was stopped by a hard, invisible wall. He smiled and turned back to Lin.

"Well, let's get on with it. Where have you looked already?"

"The entire north end has been covered along with the west. We are headed east right now."

"I will also send my pokemon to scout out ahead."

"Thank you so much," Lin said, swift to start her brisk jog back up. "We'll meet up back here in town an hour after dark."

I started to jog after Lin so that she wouldn't leave me behind. As the distance between participants of the search party grew, I saw Zack take two red and white balls from his belt, and heard him say, "Ok, team, we have just been presented with a unique opportunity. We need to _find_ the eevee."

* * *

With the sun high, wind blowing gentle and free across the open field, and the soft grass beneath my paws, the farm took first place on my "places I would like to stay at forever" list. My old home held me in its arms and cared for me like a chansey would its egg.

"Ricochet, where are you?"

_Ha ha,_ _they are never going to find me here_. I was hiding in some tall grass behind the main building. The grass was taller here, and it hid my ears really well. I still had to be careful that I didn't stick my tale up and give myself away. Curling up in a ball was the best way to hide, but I also wanted to see how close they were getting without finding me. I had the most fun when some dumbo would walk inches from my nose and still not tag me. _Losers, you can never beat me._

"Ricochet, I already caught everyone else, you can give up already."

_And give up my special spot? You've got to me kidding me?_

It was Bullet. She was a crafty one. I bet she did already catch the others, well, maybe everyone except for Zip. I saw Bullet catch many eevee's before, not because she is faster or really good at finding out where they are, but because she tricks them out.

_I know all your tricks Bullet, you not going to get me this time_. Now it was a matter of time, either she was going to comb all the grass to try and find the spot or she was going to give up. _Arceus knows I'm not going to beat her in a foot race to the base_. _I just have to wait it out._

"Ricochet, I don't know what you are trying to do, but the game is over. The only reason I came back to get you is because I thought you would be able to join me for dinner."

_Wow, she is _desperate_. Taking a low shot for the stomach; almost un-sportsmen like._ Bullet was shy when it came to most things, but she was not shy when it came to winning. She would do almost anything to outsmart someone, and was so good at her tricks that most of the time you didn't even know it was her behind the tricks. _You're not getting me this time. I know when you are trying to be nice and when you are pretending to be nice just so you can tag me and win._

"Come on! What are you trying to prove? If you want I can just go tell everyone that I gave up and you won the stupid game." She was yelling now, pretending to get mad. At least I thought she was pretending. Maybe she would go back to the guys and tell them that I won. That might be the only way out of this.

I could feel her getting closer, so I started to breathe softly not making a single sound that could tip her off. I even tried to stop my chest from rising and falling, but my heart was beating too hard. _Can she hear my heartbeat?_

"Oh, I know exactly where you are. I can hear your heartbeat from the edge of the field." I shuddered, ever so slightly, _what if she can read my mind?_ _ That not fair!_

"BOO!"

* * *

"Holy mother of magmar!" I jumped out of the grass so high I saw the hill side that I ran down earlier to get into the tall grass. The ground came back to meet me quickly though; a little too quickly.

As I made my way to my feet I spit out clumps of mud from my mouth after a wicked face plant. I tried to get a better look around. The first thing that I noticed was the absence of my yellow flower friends, only just before I noticed a deep red sky above me.

_Red sky? _ I shook my head flapping my ears around to wake me up; I could still hear Bullet laughing at me. _Red sky?_

_How long have I been asleep?_ This was bad news. The other memories I had about being out in the dark by myself gave me nightmares. One ended with a friend dead. I wasn't eager to relive that. _Have to go back now, or Lin is going to kill _me_._

I started to head off in the direction I had seen the hill that hid the road, but I didn't make it half way there when I realized that I had not completed my goal.

_What are you going to tell Lin when you do get back?_

_Sorry for ditching training today. I felt like I needed a nap._

_That sounds stupid. _

_Yeah, you're right._

_You were supposed to have learned a new move by now, and all you did was yell at some magicarp and get trapped by daisies. If you went back now Aza would have a field day._

_Oh, no! You're right!_

_Of course I am! I need to learn a new move fast! There is still some daylight left. _

_If I learn a new move before I go back then Lin won't be mad at me?_

_Heck no! She would praise you, or maybe give you better food. Shoot, she might even let you shave off Aza's mustache._

I thanked conscience for the brilliant plan I had come up with and started to look around for a fight. The sky was getting darker by the second. I really did need to move fast, sadly that is something I was not good at.

_Is that the moon?_ It seemed so low. The soft light was hanging just above the grass top. _How strange._ It even had a faint green glow to it. I stared at the light a little harder and to my surprise, it was not the moon at all. I could see it moving too much. I knew the moon moved in the sky, but I had never in all my years at the farm seen a moon bounce and swivel around like I saw the green light do. It almost looked like a fireball, but the color was off.

It was getting closer, headed right toward me. I could see it getting more and more defined until I thought for sure the thing was going to smack me between the ears before it abruptly changed directions. It was headed away from the hillside.

I didn't know exactly what the light was, or what was going on, but I did know one thing. I was going to follow that ball of light, because I knew that it belonged to a pokemon, and I really felt like fighting someone.

The sky was now more of a deep purple which was good, because it was easy to see the eerie light up ahead, always just out of reach, but was also bad because I knew I probably wasn't going to find my way back to the pokemon center as easily as I had hoped.

Catching the light was taking longer than I expected. It could move so quickly. Not that it was fast, the way it floated along, but it seemed to jump to different areas just before I reached it or bounce in an impossible direction when I pounced. To make the situation worse, I could sense a pokemon close by, rustling in the leaves of the pasture, but the tall grass kept it hidden. It was something Zip would do; let you know she is a heartbeat away right before she attacked. Did I mention how I hate tall grass?

The forest of leaves abruptly ended and it took not a few well placed paws to keep myself from another face plant. _One a day is fine by me, thank you._ The ball had come to a stop at the opposite edge of a large circle of tall grass. The weeds stood well above my ears to form a wall of grass outlining the meadow. I couldn't see the hill in any direction. _How do you lose a hill?_ _I guess my sense of direction hasn't improved._

"That's it! I have had enough!" I roared at the bobbing light. "Your mine!"

"No way! I found it first," a high pitched buzzing sound said to my right. I stumbled over a root and did another face plant. Something big whooshed over my head, and I looked up in time to see the back of a giant flying bug pulling out of a dive. When it turned around I got a good look at his face. It was hard to tell the bug pokemon's emotion what with his pail, dusty wings, and hairy butt, but I am sure I saw a crazed look in his large, white, sectioned eyes.

"It's my _light_!" The way he said light was so creepy. It sent the hair on my back straight up.

I was not one to let opportunities like this slip from beneath my paws. After all I had been looking for a fight for the better part of a day. Ugly didn't seem to mind if I had a go at him.

"Um, no, it's my light." It sounded lame. In my defense, it was hard come up with an insult for a guy that was so amazingly hideous.

However, it did the trick. His eyes got even wider, if that were possible, as if I said hurtful joke about his mother.

"All the light in the sky belongs to Venomoth," he chided.

"Well, that's a little selfish, don't you think? Can't some of the light belong to me? I have been chasing after that green light over there for the past hour."

"_Never!_" the fierceness of his battle cry was lost in his nasally, sharp-pitched speech. He swooped down again narrowly missing me. He was faster then he looked, but I caught him in the face with a sand attack when he turned to come at me again.

He dove again this time I didn't have time to dodge and he knocked me to the ground. _Ouch, he is a lot tougher than he looks._ I decided to laugh the hit off.

Scrambling to my feet I said, "What an idiot, fighting over a dumb light. Like I care what happens to the stupid ball." My opponent flinched and it gave me the opportunity to tackle him to the ground. For a second I thought that he was passed out, his eyes were open and staring off into the distance, and I had him pinned to the grass beneath us, but then he started to vibrate. I jumped off quick and he began to float upward into the air above me. I prepared myself to dodge another dive, but it didn't come. Then I noticed something odd. He wasn't flapping his wings, yet he was still floating there starring out into the night. _His eyes… they're purple?_ _This isn't good._

The venomoth focused sharply at me suddenly and said, in a much deeper hum that sounded like it was coming from all around me, "You will _never_ have my light."

_Whap!_

I felt something hit my tail. "What the heck?"

_Whap!_

Another _something_ hit me in the stomach and sent me to the ground.

_Whap!_

_What's going on here?_ _What is hitting me? _ I looked at the venomoth again to see if he was still in the same place. Yes, he was still in the same place, floating in the air, eyes still glowing, but staring me down like a tauros does a red flag. From what I could tell he hadn't moved an inch one way or the other. _Then what keeps hitting me? _

I scanned the clearing quickly looking for any movement and jumped to my feet again. The hits I was taking were not that bad, now that I was expecting them to come from anywhere. Hits always hurt worse when you don't expect them. I tensed my muscles and started to run around. Maybe the attackers would get careless and I would be able to spot one.

_Where will they attack next?_ I was taking hits on all sides; a steady, invisible barrage. I still hadn't seen anything. _Maybe_ _if_ _I can anticipate where the attack was going to come from next I might be able to catch the person._ Hit after hit, I looked for a pattern. I gritted my teeth. Stomach, head, leg.

_Rustle_.

It came from behind me. _HA! You've given yourself away!_ I made a wild leap turning as fast as I could to tackle the, whatever it was. _There!_ My paw caught hold of a furry bush-like pokemon and I slammed it into the ground as hard as I could. _Ha, that was easy. What a loser. _

"I'd like to see you try and get ou… OU…. OOOOOOOUCH!"

I had been afraid that I was only going to catch air with that wild spin, but I ended up catching something much worse.

My tail lay beneath my paws. I jumped off quickly. _My tail! My beautiful tail!_ It looked pathetic. My beloved tail was slightly bent at an odd angle and all the hair was flattened on one side making it look like an oversized dinner plate. The invisible blows were still ramming into my body, but I could hardly feel them now.

I don't know if it was my imagination or a reflection of how I felt, but I swear I saw two fiery red glowing eyes staring right at me from the edge of the clearing. I was beyond learning a new move now. All I wanted was to kick some serious butt.

"_Venomoth will punish all those who desecrate his precious Light!_"

I actually did see red then. I turned to face the venomoth behind me and started to bound forward with all the force I could muster. _No one messes with the tail!_

"No one messes with the tail!" I snarled. I felt a wave of heat behind me, and saw, _are those flames?_ It didn't matter. I was going to pound that bug flat. "You want a piece of my tail? I'll give you a piece of my tail!"

I pushed off the ground as hard as I could to reach the venomoth high above and started a summersault in the air, bringing my head down and my back up rolling, in a ball. As my head came out of the dip revolution I saw I was on level with my opponent and glared in his eyes. And for the first time since I met Ugly, I saw fear in them. My tail hardened, the hair folding down back into place, tighter, and I swung it down on top of his head. I continued to let my tail shove him down. After all, you can't have a good hit without a good follow-through.

What I saw surprised me. The heat that I had been feeling wasn't coming from my head. My tail was on fire, but it wasn't burning. In fact there seemed to be flames all around venomoth and me.

At first the bug seemed to stay where he was when my tail connected with his head, but only for a slight second before he shot off toward the clearing's grassy floor, slammed into the ground, and slid a few feet where he lay in a smoldering pile; knock out.

The flames dissipated as the air waved them out in a fit of heat, and I walked over to Venomoth to see if he was still breathing. Not that I cared that much. My invisible enemy had disappeared as well. _So I guess it was the venomoth that was hitting me._ This made me care about his breath even less.

"Boo-yeah! I totally owned you."

"Impressive. Well, _not_ the happy dance, but you got that bug pretty good."

I halted abruptly, mid prance, and turned to find the newcomer. _That voice!_ _It couldn't be!_

A light brown paw stretched out onto the clearing floor, followed by three more. A fluffy brown tail with a white tip swayed behind a downy white main. With her tall ears folded back a little, she gave me that shy, yet, confident look that only Bullet could do.

"What the heck are _you_ doing here?" I said rushing forward, then stopping a few feet away.

"I could ask the same about you. You have gotten a lot stronger. What in the world was the move you just used? I mean, for a second there I thought you were going to lose the fight. I have to say, if your tail didn't hit him hard enough the fire sure did the trick," Bullet said softly. She glanced behind me at the venomoth and frowned.

"Oh, that? Yeah, that was nothing. I do it all the time. Some people call me 'The Flamer.' Or so I'm told."

Bullet raised an eyebrow.

_Bullet. Wow, it's really her. What is she doing here? Is it really her? I can't believe it. She looks exactly the same as I remember._ _I wonder if she has gotten any stronger. I bet she noticed some changes with me._

"So, I would really like to know why you are out here Ricochet. Don't you have any friends with you? Or are you all by yourself?"

"Yeah, I have lots of friends. Tons of them. I just don't have them with me right now. Came out here to train. It's secret training so I can't let anyone else know what I am doing. Yeah. So stop asking so many questions about it alright, or else I might have to kill you. I'm just kidding, but seriously, I will."

"Ok, whatever. It is getting dark though. How about we head back to town?"

"Sure. I can protect you on the way back to town."

"Great," Bullet smiled not showing any teeth.

_Oh, no! I can't go back until I… wait a second! I have learned a new move. The flaming tail! What an awesome move, Lin will never get mad at me again. I could probably teach her a thing or two about training. _

"Alright, Bullet, since I am doing all the work guarding you, how about you lead the way."

"You're _lost_ aren't you?" she said leaning closer examining my face, looking for a lie.

"I'm not lost. You're the one that's lost. I know exactly where I am."

"Great than that makes this easier," Bullet said turning around. She started pushing past the tall weeds bordering the clearing. Then, pausing she poked her head back out and said, "Make sure you stay close 'The Flamer.'"

"The what? Oh, yeah. No need to get scared, I'll be right behind you."

She pushed through the rest of the way and disappeared behind the grassy leaves. The night was just plain black now, except for the stars and the curved moon in the sky.

_Girl, I hope you know what you are going._

I started forward looking through the gaps in the foliage, and for a second I thought I saw a pair of fiery eyes staring back at me. When I blinked they were gone.

"Are you coming, Slowpoke?"

"Yeah."

* * *

"Dang eevee! I am going to kill him when I find out where he has been."

The sky was red with the setting sun and reflective clouds. Lin was raging up the sandy path toward the Rock Tunnel leaving angry dust plumes in her wake. To the south the mountain loomed and the foothills cast long shadows pointing us away from town.

The search continued on. Lin and I stayed close to the mountain side. I think she was hoping to find Ricochet trapped in a pit on mountainous terrain. Zach and his pokemon went on ahead to the mouth of the Rock Tunnel and said he would work his way back, and meet us in the middle.

I had actually started to help in the search by now. I wanted to finish sifting through every hiding place and interrogating every hiker that passed by. One must recognize it is sometimes necessary to side with those you would not. _How does the saying go?_ "If you can't beat the ignorantly hopeful begrudgingly join them."

Although, I wouldn't say I had given up on persuading Lin to come to her senses.

"What time are we going to head back to the pokemon center, Lin?" I said nonchalantly, as if asking about what was for dinner.

"When we find Ricochet," said Lin. She continued pacing up and down the path searching ever inch of the ground every now and again calling for Ricochet moving quickly and thoroughly.

_I was afraid of that._ "Oh, ok. I was just thinking the sun was setting soon and we better start heading back to town before it gets dark. We don't want to get lost on the route like the boy we saw this morning."

"I guess we better find him quick then."

"Indeed; I couldn't agree more. On the other hand, I hate to be the one to bring this up, what if we don't find him today? It would be nice to have a good night's rest before heading out tomorrow. Right?"

"I think we can find him tonight. I'm sure of it; we just have to keep looking. All we have left is this direction and then we can move on to the south, if we don't find him here he must have gone to Vermillion City. They would be sure to know where he is, and we could all stay the night together."

Only the tip of the sun was bubbling over the trees, quickly setting.

"Have you thought about _why_ Ricochet is missing? I have been wondering this all day long, and have come up with many possible solutions. I am sure there are many more, given it _is_ Ricochet we're talking about, but I find it most likely he has realized he is useless and decided to leave the team." Lin slowed her pace and I saw her back stiffen through her coat. Although I couldn't see her face I could sense I should hasten to the point.

"Ricochet is selfless," I nearly gagged, "if you look deep, deep… deep, down into his character." _Who am I kidding? Ricochet is about as deep as he is tall._ "I think it was someone important who I heard say, 'Youngster, how many times have I told you to take out the trash.' Ricochet was probably trying to help us out one last time by taking the trash out himself and saving us the trouble."

"Aza," Lin sighed, "maybe you should look down by the river to the north of us." She picked up her methodical pace again. "There is a field of tall grass he might have been in."

"Well, it was worth a shot."

There was a flash of light above the sun's dome and it set behind the trees.

* * *

"Um, shouldn't we be able to see the city by now? I'll admit I'm not patient after I've had a long day of hard work, but I don't remember walking this far away. Are you sure you know where you are going?"

The half moon in the sky spilled its white light on the path in front of us. I could see a few clouds in the sky, but it was mostly covered by wavy patches of stars; like a river frozen in the sky. The path was getting steeper was we moved on at a steady pace. Boulders on either side of us seemed to grow in size as we passed, and it made me wonder what could be hiding behind them.

"Of course I know where we are. I wouldn't be a very good guide if I didn't know where we were," said Bullet.

"I'm just saying we have been walking a long time and my paws are starting to hurt. Not that I am complaining. I could probably walk all the way back to the farm if I wanted to. Our trainers are probably worried about us, you know?"

"Just follow me I know exactly where we are."

We walked along the mountain side. I remembered purposely avoiding this path because of all the rocks that could get stuck in my paws. There is nothing worse than having a rock stuck in your paw when traveling. Lin usually wouldn't even stop to let me pull them out leaving me behind.

"Do you have any rocks in your paws?"

"Do I what?" Bullet said looking over her shoulder.

"I said, 'Do you have any rocks in your paws?' I was wondering if maybe you needed to walk closer to the river. The ground is softer there." We were approaching the top of a foot hill steep enough to block our view of the path ahead.

Bullet reached the top and turned around. "I'm fine. Let's keep moving. We are almost there."

Her glowing eyes looked down at me as I walked up to join her. I looked down at my paws. _Sorry guys._

I decided to take one last glance at the river all the way down the hill. I could see the black water and small bits of reflected light. We were farther away from it than I thought we were. _Hey, if the river was down there when I left Cerulean shouldn't it be on the other side of me on the way back?_

My vision was blocked as bullet walked in front of me and slid her face next to mine forcing me to look her in those fiery eyes.

"Wow there! Personal space violation."

"I _know_ where I am going."

_She knows where she is going._

"Come on, Ricochet, everyone back on the farm is waiting for us."

_I like the farm._ "I can't wait to see everyone!"

We cantered forward down the hill as the light from forgotten Cerulean sank into the valley behind the crest.

* * *

Darkness arrives quickly in these mountains, and its forthcoming was only hastened by my trek into the little valley cut by the river. Trees were being drained of their color and a new eerie life was springing forth to swap with the clam that was here before.

I was totally exhausted from our unsuccessful march. I hadn't done this much walking in… well, in my life. I had been through fields, swaps, and rocky paths all in one day. I will deny I said this, but, I was surprised I made it this far without teleporting. At least where I was now, down by the watery stream bed, the ground was softer.

_I can finally get these darn rocks out of my feet. _The mountain path out of the city was covered with tiny rocks that seemed to be able to crawl into the most uncomfortable position on your foot and then stick there. Normally I would just pull them out, and I did at first, but they were quickly replaced. Overwhelmed, I discontinued the procedure and tried to ignore the spikes of pain from my feet and jealousy over Lin's rugged footwear.

When I reached the slow-moving stream I sent out a pulse of energy to check if there were any fish in the water I could get a clue from. My search came back positive. A magicarp was laying close by in the muddy shallows and I approached him.

"Have you seen a brown haired moron walk by here today?" I asked as I probed his mind for answers. All I found from the probe was shallow muddy water in the mind, and from the question, shallow muddy water in the face.

_Splash_: The only defensive move of a magicarp. Its only purpose: to so infuriate the opponent, the battle ends faster than if the opponent had not been splashed, with more violence, and inevitable defeat.

My work with the magicarp having been accomplished I moved down the stream following no particular path.

I spat to get some of the stale water from my mouth. _At least Lin has the sense to not allow something more stupid than Ricochet on the team._ The grass around me grew taller as I moved deeper into the field that bloomed from the river's edge. Every now and then I could hear or feel pokemon around me, but none of them were close enough to cause a threat. A sweet aroma wafted through the leaves of the tall grass, churned by the gentle wind.

_Perhaps there are more intelligent pokemon I this area to question. _Icalculated the source of the botanical aroma quickly based upon the direction of the wind making sure to factor in the miss direction the nearby river would cause. With this new heading, I changed directions slightly and began to send out small pulses to readily identify any seemingly camouflaged pokemon. Before too long I sensed I was upon the target.

"What a pleasant surprise to find you here," I said, but received no response. "It's not very respectful to ignore your guests." I stared down the nearest yellow bell-shaped flower drooping in front of me.

"Well, dude, can't you see we are trying to catch some shut eye here?"

"Indeed, forgive me."

"Wow there bro. No need to get so formal. You're welcome to join us if you wanna, man," drawled another bellsprout rising up a little and opening an eye.

"I think I'll pass. I just need some information. I have had a long day." My psyonic pulse was picking up large numbers of bellsprouts in this spot. It seems they have formed some kind of colony. In the north of Cerulean, where I lived, these plant-types stayed in groups, but nothing as big as this. _If Ricochet said something he shouldn't to these guys…_

"Far out, dude. You and me both. I was, like, totally sleeping, dude, and this other dude ran into me and made me spill my drink, bro. It was, like, totally crazy, dude."

"Fascinating," many of the other pokemon were beginning to wake up and the sweet scent of their toxic nectar was mounting. I decided to single one out. "I have a question for you," I said looking at the flower that had just orated the last muddled comment. "Have you seen an eevee here today? He is a little bigger then you with brown fur, big ears, and a puffy tail."

"Dude! No way, dude! That's the dude!"

"Um…" I was growing impatient, but I pushed it down determined to not set off the gang against me. Although I could probably take them all, I didn't want to waste the time.

"Wow, man. Wow, man. You're, like, blowing my mind right now."

"Oh, I'm sorry again. I didn't mean to lose control of my ability's." I halted the psyonic pulse I had been sending out. _I have to be more careful of that in the future. These new powers since evolving are stronger than I had anticipated._

"No, dude. The guy you're looking for is the dude that woke me up earlier today."

He must have seen the confused look on my face. I was finding it difficult to decipher the meaning of their dialect. Plant-types can be so hard to understand sometimes.

"The little brown bro., dude, I saw him today. He was the dude running like crazy through the middle of your camp. That's so ridiculous that you know him, dude. Hey, guys! This dude knows the little brown bro." As the news spread the toxic fumes increased. Many of the bellsprouts were shaking their heads awake and looking at me with their droopy eyes. I could feel my eyes falling to mimic theirs. _I need to get out of here fast._

"Which way did he go?" I cut the main sprout off.

"- what was that, dude?"

I fought to stay awake, "Which way? Where is the eevee?"

"Oh, the little bro. left a while ago, I don't know where he went. You look tired, dude. You should take a nap with us."

"I'm leaving."

With that I ripped my body into its basic particles and shot out of the death trap across the field into a nearby clearing. There was a less likely chance of bellsprouts to appear in a clearing than in the foliage. _I need a little time to recuperate._

Safe for the moment, I sucked in the clean air with deep breathes. The coolness of it felt good and soothed my nerves. I could already feel my blood flowing faster and the fog in my mind lifting. As my breathing slowed I began to scan the clearing I had materialized in.

There was a faint buzzing coming from the other side of the clearing. _Interesting, this might not be as safe as I hoped._ I sharpened my senses and prepared for an attack. Taking slow steps forward, I noticed, now that I wasn't binge breathing, a slight wisp of smoke that hung in the air. It was growing stronger as I moved toward the buzzing. A twitching mound lie not far away and I could see a small plume of smoke trailing from it as it shifted about.

"Well, well, well, what happened to you my friend?" I said, appraising the situation to be less dangerous than I had originally anticipated.

"My…" I heard the heap say as I got closer.

"What's the matter? Get too close to the fire?"

"Light…"

I looked the mess of a pokemon up and down. Whatever it was it was badly burned. _A bug-type from the looks of it_. _I wonder what could have done something like this…_

The world whirled around me. I fell down backward and felt the stubby grass of the meadow break my fall. The scene before me evaporated leaving darkness. Then little specks of light began to poke through slowly and then quickly until I recognized a cloudless night sky.

I sat up on the meadow floor. I was a few yards farther from the bug pokemon than before I had fallen down. _ I couldn't have fallen that far._

There was something else standing next to smoky mass. I scrambled to my feet preparing for the next attack, but it didn't come. As I looked closer the other creature seemed more and more familiar. _Little brown… Ricochet is that you?_ It appeared as if he was doing some ritualistic dance around the bug when suddenly he was cut off and looked intently at the bushes to my right. Following his line of vision to the edge of the meadow I also peered fixedly eager to find out what was going on.

Two eyes gleamed from in between the leaves and the darkness. A reddish orange pokemon that looked a lot like Ricochet stepped into the clearing. It spoke with Ricochet, and then they both turned and headed back into the thickets.

"Ricochet, get back here. Where are you going?"

My vision rippled again like a stone thrown into the pool of my consciousness, and a new landscape unfolded before me. Ricochet and the other pokemon were now running along a mountain path. Down the hill from them was a dark opening that seemed to swallow the light from around its edges.

I looked closer leaning forward. The darkness grew and grew until it surrounded me. I yelled out, "Light! I need the light."

As if in answer to my call my eyes shot open and I was back on the grassy floor of the meadow. I sat up quickly and looked for the bug. _What was that?_

The burnt bug jumped up onto its skinny legs and stared angrily at me. "The _light_! The _light_ is all mine!" it shouted. And with a furious shake that sent bits of black dust in every direction, he leapt into the night sky soaring off over the hedge of grass.

_A vision! That was a vision. _

I decided I was doing no good sitting on the floor of the wilderness any longer, and, in a thousand pieces, I fly almost instantaneously onto a rocky path to the south of me. A shadowy figure rummaged off the path ahead of me.

"Lin," I said, taking a few steps forward, "I think this is going to take longer than you thought it was. The good news is: we are headed in the right direction."

* * *

"Hey, I think I recognize this! We must be getting really close right?" I said looking over at Bullet to the side of me. "Look, this is the road the food truck used to come on. I think I am starting to remember. Wow, this is so exciting. Who do you think is going to be there?"

The moon was high in the sky giving us light to walk by. The anticipation was almost more than I could stand. _Zip will be there for sure, and Feral_. _To think, I even miss Feral_. _I wonder how many of them left the farm like me. Bullet would know_.

"Everyone you remember is there. They're all waiting for us to arrive," she said swiveling her head this way and that, like she was looking for something.

"What do you think Feral is going to do when he sees you and me again?"

"Um… you know, do what he always does," she said. Complacency held heavy in her tone. Maybe she wasn't as excited about seeing _everyone_ as I was. _That's ok, some people aren't as forgiving as I am I guess._

"You have got to be excited to see someone. Who do you miss the most?"

"I missed you the most of course," she said smiling at me briefly then resuming her distracted air searching for something.

"Ah, I missed you, too, buddy." Bullet and I always did get along pretty good, but I bet I wasn't the person she missed the most. The person I missed the most was Arazul. _I bet that's who Bullet missed the most; she didn't want to make me jealous is all. _"What is the first thing you are going to say to Arazul?"

Bullet had stopped and was leaning over the side of the road. "Um, who was that again?"

I stopped just behind her. "Ha-ha, that's a good one, but seriously."

"Um…" There was a pause and Bullet kept looking over the cliff.

_Wait. Come to think of it… cliff? This looks nothing like the Eevee Farm._ _What's going on here?_

We were on a mountain road with large rocky boulders lining the path on one side with a steep slope on the other. The farm had always been surrounded by soft grassy fields. _My paws hurt. There were little rocks stuck in them._ _Where am I?_

_Bullet really doesn't remember who Arazul is? That's crazy. If a hundred years went by I would never forget Arazul. It's almost like I'm not talking to…_

Not only the scenery was changing, but Bullet didn't look the same anymore either. Her fur was reddish orange now, and her ears were shorter. It was definitely not Bullet standing across from me. The only resemblance was whatever it was walked on four legs.

I must have been too quiet because she turned around quickly and looked me in the eyes. "Is everything alright Ricochet?"

"Of course everything is alright," I said backing up against one of the boulders behind me. "I just wanted to let you know that," I sprang forward in form for a flawless tackle, "I'M GOING TO KNOCK THE SNOT OUT OF YOU!"

My punch landed perfectly in her stomach because she reared up in surprise of my attack, perhaps too perfectly. As we grappled with each other I could feel our weight shift closer and closer to the edge of the path, until finally, we tipped. Head over tail we rolled for what seem like forever. Buffeted here and there, I felt like I was back in the clearing with Venomoth times 10 until finally we landed at the bottom of the slope.

I tried to get to my feet and face my opponent so she couldn't catch me off guard again, but she was lying still toward the bottom of a rock pile, moaning. Before in the field with the venomoth I was unfamiliar with my surroundings, here, with this strange pokemon, I was dead lost. The sound of the river scrambling was the only familiar thing about this rocky terrene.

_Maybe I could follow the river back to Cerulean._ I started to follow the sound of the river walking fast, but the pain from the nasty fall was slowing me down.

"Where do you think you're going?" My opponent was climbing to her feet and trying to pears me with her fiery eyes.

"What are you, and what do you want with me?" I said gritting my teeth, _if only Lin hadn't told me to forget growl._ I felt like there was a fire in my chest fuelling me and easing the pain.

"You're such an idiot," she said. "I can't believe you thought I was your friend Bullet for this long." She was limping, moving closer. "As you can see I'm not even an eevee. You would think the difference in species would have given it away. I have to thank you for your cooperation though. It would have taken all night to drag your dead weight this far. We Vulpix aren't known for our physical strength."

"Good to know," I said. "Then knocking you out won't be much of a challenge." I crouched down ready to pounce on her weak side hurt from our trip down the hill.

Vulpix shot forward clearing the distance between us in less time than I would have thought possible and gave me a solid hit to the side.

"So we're playing games now, are we?" I grunted as she quickly stepped back using her paw not-so-hurt-as-I-thought to steady herself on the smaller rocks.

"No, when I said I was going to drag your dead weight I was being completely serious."

I bounded once clearing the distance between us easily and jumped again aiming to get a critical hit, but she was able to side step enough to only take a glance. I could tell she was heavier than I was and almost a foot taller with the ridiculous hair-do she was sporting.

"What time do you have to wake up in the morning in order to get your hair to look just right?"

"It falls naturally this way, beautiful, unlike your disheveled main. I bet you collect a load of dirt in there."

"Oh, I get it; it's your gigantic tail that takes the most of your time. Honestly, girly girls like you have no place on the battle field."

"What? You mean these?" she said. Her tail began to grow almost like it was unfolding, and then I saw them. There were six dark shapes moving behind her; six tails.

"My goodness. You're a mutant!" _Gross who would want to have six tails? It is almost as bad as having four arms or three heads. How disgusting. Three heads… _I shuddered at my own imagination.

"Mutant? That's it! This was just an order before, now it's personal!" she glared at me and her fur began to glow slightly. I prepared myself, unsure of what was about to come. Then she opened her mouth and I saw an eerie green flame growing. I hardly had enough time to crouch low when suddenly the flame shot out toward me. I easily dodged jumping to the right.

"Fire? Well, you are going to have to try a little harder than that."

"That's right '_Flamer_,'" she said, her grin showing sharp teeth, "fire!"

My shadow cast by the flame grew sharper and more distinct. I turned just in time to see the hot flame collide into my shoulders, grazing my back.

"You see, while I am not strong physically, I do have the ability to control fire; make it move where ever I want to. It's funny that you thought you could beat me. You couldn't have even beaten that venomoth without my help. What were you thinking?"

"You didn't help me. I did it all solo. You were probably teamed up with Mr. Ugly. Mr. Ugly and his wife double teaming a single eevee and they still lost!" I tried to attack again but the pain in my back screamed every time I moved. It felt like the fireball was still sitting on top of me, though I knew it had dissipated shortly after it struck me. I felt like my energy drained slowly into the wound sapping my strength to fight.

"Oh, really? Then why don't you use the same move that you used to knockout the bug on me?"

"Maybe I will!" Fighting the pain on my back I dived forward hardening my fur and then, with a large sweeping motion, I turned and let my tail fly. She leapt backward narrowly escaping the blow, and I shattered a boulder in her place.

"What? No fire from 'The Flamer'?" she said.

I was starting to regret I said that.

"Maybe I can help you out their Ricochet." She backed up a little bit farther, her fur began to glow softly again, and I braced myself for more heat. When she opened her mouth, she tilted her head back and let a rocket of flame burst into the sky above us lighting the landscape around us like a lightning bolt.

_I have to finish this fast. I don't know how much more I have in me with my back the way it is. _It didn't feel like it was getting better. In fact, it felt like it was getting worse by the second. _I have got one shot at this._

Taking a deep breath, I surged at Vulpix and gave the fiercest battle cry I could conger. My tail was still rock solid, harder, and I swung toward her left side. It missed and crashed into the face of the hill, cracking it. Vulpix backed up more shaking her head wildly in all directions, and I made use of her distraction sweeping my tail again across her right side. My attack missed again, this time sliding across the ground. I carried the momentum through so I was facing Vulpix, looking her in her wide eyes. Then, with the last bit of force I could draw, I push up hard with my back legs rising up on my front paws and let the momentum of my last swing carry my weight up and over my center. Tail high in the air and moving fast, I curled forward willing my attack to land, because I knew it would be my last.

My tail crashed into something hard and I heard the smaller rocks on the ground shoot off in several directions smashing into the face of the hill and splattering like a dropped egg. Then the pain set in. Not only did it hurt to move, but, in my last attempt to pulverize my captor, I landed on my back causing the fireball of pain bear down on me even more. I rolled off of the wound carefully. Dust hung in the air in all directions. I looked closely at the small crater my tail had made in the bed of stones and my spirits dropped. _No Vulpix._

I looked up and saw her flashing her toothy smirk through the dust cloud, eyes glowing like coals in a fire.

"So what happens now?" I asked trying to mask the pain from my voice, and shifted to my feet.

"Now you come with…"

"RICOCHET!" From the top of the hill there was a loud sound, like the one my tail made when it slammed into the stony floor. This sound was deeper, though, and thicker, like there were lots of rocks falling down a really steep cliff.

_Avalanche!_ I looked at Vulpix and got a confirmation for my guess. Both of us bolted in opposite directions to take cover. Well, she bolted, I stumbled, but I still made it behind a wide rock before the rock slide buried me.

"Ricochet, where are you?"

_Lin!_

"Lin!" I said, "I'm here Lin," and walked from my covering looking wildly for my trainer.

Before I knew it she was by my side and holding me in her blessedly reeking coat. Both of us started talking at the same time.

"Ricochet, I'm so glad you're here. We found you. You're hurt."

"Yeah, I'm here. This is where the party is at. I could use a little help though. There is a crazy vulpix trying to take me somewhere, and my back is killing me."

Lin looked at me closely and paused as she looked at my back where the glowing flame had hit me. She reached into her bag and said, "Here, take this."

I lapped up the berry she held in her hand when she brought it close to my face. Ice coated my mouth as I chewed and then filled my stomach quickly coating me with as if with a cool breeze from the inside out. My back and shoulders felt completely healed, though, I was still weak from fatigue of battle.

"Ricochet, why did you leave?"

_I was afraid you were going to ask that. _I had been thinking about this a lot. Why did I go for a walk? Was I really trying to learn a new move? _Well, yeah, of course you were._

_But, I didn't learn a new move. The flaming tail wasn't me remember. Anyway, I don't think it matters._ I almost couldn't bring myself to look at Lin, but when I did look at her, with her bushy eyebrows and midnight hair casting a shadow over her face, I could tell it wouldn't matter to her if I had learned a hundred moves, she would still have asked me that same question.

_Yeah, I guess you're right. Well, maybe you needed to teach them a lesson; A day in your life if I am not there to save your butt. Can't an eevee get some time to himself every once in a while? _

_I see what you're saying and_, "I get frustrated sometimes and I just want to go back to the farm and forget about this stuff, but then I remember… and I don't want to leave. I still want to be on the team, please."

Suddenly there was a shimmering directly over Lin's right shoulder and Aza appeared, materializing out of nothing. "Sorry I'm late; I thought I would wait until the dust cleared after Lin's rampage down the hill side. Has anything happened?"

"Don't worry Ricochet, I understood you," Lin said with her scratchy voice, smiling.

"Good, 'cause I'm not saying it again."

"What's the situation?" Aza said, looking around for clues.

"There is a vulpix…" I started to say, when I was cut off.

"Bravo, Bravo," said a voice I didn't recognize from just beyond where the vulpix had run to take cover, "Well, look what we have here."

"Zack," Lin called out, "is that you? It's alright. I found him. It's me, Lin."

Only thin traces of the dust remained, so I could easily see the tall human boy walk out from behind a curve in the rock face of the cliff. He had long strait blond hair that swayed back and forth as he climbed over the rocky rubble. Both his hands were in his pockets.

"That's right I'm glad you're here Lin. I have a few questions for you." he said walking closer until he was only a yard away from Lin and me.

"Sorry, I'm not really in the mood for talk. My eevee has been hurt and I just want to make it back to the pokemon center."

Zack's jaw clenched and he took a deep breath. I felt like doing the same thing.

"What's your problem? I think it has been a long day for all of us," I said hoping Aza conveyed the message.

"After the help I gave you, I think I deserve some answers," Zack said not breaking his gaze with Lin. "What is the move Ricochet uses with his tail?"

"What are you talking about?" Lin said automatically, but sounding a little defensive.

"Oh, I get it. You thought you would be able to keep it all for yourself. Stronger moves that can turn the tide in any battle, one that only you know; if I were in your position I might do the same thing. We all know the cheating Gym Leaders do it."

I wanted to help cover for Lin, after all, it's not her fault I'm too awesome for my own good. "Hey, she doesn't really know what it is. It's just something I came with from the farm-"

Lin moved her hand up to my moth to silence me. I moved to nibble on her finger, but I was cut short.

"So that's it. Anyone that can afford to spend millions on a pre-packaged pokemon gets a free ticket to the top. You make me sick." Zack spat at the little distance between us to emphasize his point. "Guess what, you're not the only one who can teach their pokemon a few tricks," he said and tilted his head to the side. Calling behind him he said, "Vulpix, come here." Turning back, his green eyes like acid venom, he said, "Time to show me what you're all about."

I could have come up with a pretty good comeback, but Lin beat me to it.

"Ok," she said.

I didn't say it was a good comeback. She completely spoiled the tension of the whole situation. Later I asked her about it and she told me people like Zack won't listen to the truth, so there is no point in arguing with them. You have to show them what you're made of and hope they catch on.

Before I was done evaluating Lin's reply, I was tossed lightly from Lin's arms. She stood erect never taking her eyes off Zack, and I watched my opponent reappear from around the same notch in the cliff Zack had been hiding in.

_Round two._

"Ricochet, quick, follow me," Lin said bolting away from the cliff toward the river.

_This is a new strategy. _Actually, it wasn't a new strategy in the larger look at my life as an eevee, but running away from a fight wasn't _Lin's_ style.

Zack had similar feelings. "I should have known you would run away you coward. When you are faced with a real challenge you run away. Get back here you cheater!" He followed at a close pace, with Vulpix trailing not far behind.

_I might not know what her plan is, but I trust her. _I trailed right at Lin's heels avoiding an early confrontation with Vulpix. Lin, in mid stride, reached down, yanked a pokeball from her belt, and called, "Aza, return." I forgot he was back there. He can be fast when he wants to be, but I don't think he will ever make a good runner. _Four legs are better then two. Err, then again Lin is faster than me. I may need to rethink that.._ A red light flashed toward Aza and he disappeared into the red and white ball held tightly in Lin's swinging fist. _I can't see how he stands to be inside those creepy things. Give me rocky road and smelly coat travel any day. _

So we didn't forget he was in pursuit, Zack yelled, "I'm going to tear you up. Vulpix, ember!" She had already caught up to Zack and was right behind Lin and me. At the orders of her trainer she leapt toward us, planted her feet, took a deep breath, and, as her fur began to glow, she spewed red angry flames at me and Lin, bathing us in light.

Quick as a cat, Lin set her feet right, crouched down to pick me up, and dove, head first, to dodge the flames. At least the landing was soft. We skid to a halt in a damp bank of sand. Lin's coat sported a few black holes that slightly smoked, which, believe it or not, made her smell a little better than usual. The majority of the ember missed us, but Vulpix as already readying herself for another attack.

"Sand attack!" Lin shouted.

I almost made comment we were in a pile of rocks and it would be hard to pull that off here, but then I noticed I was surrounded by sand. _Lin knew there was sand down here by the river. I knew she knew what she was doing._

I stalled too long. Another ember attack came right at me. I had to make a poor role to the right to avoid a critical hit, but she still managed to make the cool night air feel hotter than midday summer.

I turned as fast as I could and kicked the sand at my feet into the air aiming to put out the fire-starter.

"Take that girly girl. Maybe it will improve the hair style you're going for: ridiculous."

"Gah," Vulpix made a squeal as the sand made contact.

"Vulpix, don't back down," Zack shouted, "use confuse ray."

A flash of light shout at me from Vulpix so fast I didn't have a change to dodge. The light blinded me for only a moment and faded leaving no trace. _That was easy_. I thought, but I knew it wasn't going to be as simple as that. I had been in too many battles to think I could get off without a scratch. _In these sorts of battles I usually get hurt like-_

"Hey, over here." I spared a glance to my right and noticed some movement on the other side of the river. I would have ignored it, but it was my opponent, Vulpix. _How did she get from here all the way over there in two seconds?_

"Ricochet, don't fall for it," Lin said with her calm battle face on, "it's just a trick. Use Plan A. Vulpix is still in the same spot."

I turned and there she was, readying herself to shoot another flame bath in my direction. _Lin said use plan A. I like plan A. It's where I get tackle you into submission. _I thought, charging Vulpix. She blew out another spout of flames, but the sand in her eye must have thrown her off because she hit the ground too close to her feet. She tried to recover by bringing her head up higher making a swish of fire in my general direction. I dodged it with no trouble, and then tackled her down. As I backed up, Vulpix got shakily to her feet.

"This isn't over yet. Vulpix use will-o-wisp." In obedience to her master she planted her feet. Almost like she was blowing me a kiss, she puffed out a bluish green ball of fire which floated in my direction.

"Um, Lin, I would really like to avoid getting hit by that again." I said looking for support as the spooky light drew closer.

"I said, Plan A, Ricochet," Lin said, "now finish this quick, move quick as you can."

The ball made a dive and I mustered ounce of speed I could summon. Dashing out of its way I came abreast with Vulpix who stood still as a statue. I knew the flame was right behind me, spurring me on. _Bam!_ This time Vulpix didn't get up and the ball of fire winked out with her.

"Vulpix, return." Zack extended a pokeball and my nemesis was drawn back.

"Ricochet, come back here." I trotted back to her side. "Good job Ricochet, I knew you could do it."

"I was totally awesome… did you … see… um…" my mind seemed to be freezing over quickly. I couldn't quite think of the words to finish the sentence; or any words for that matter.

"Go, Ekans," Zack said from the other side of the battle field, taking another pokeball from his belt, and tossed it forward.

"Stay here, Ricochet."

"What?" My head was in a fog.

"Aza," Lin said while summoning the psychic type. "I need your help with this."

"Finally. I thought you had forgotten about me, what with all the time you were wasting having Ricochet attack an injured vulpix. I could have taken it down in one hit. This should be just as easy." He said, apprising his opponent.

I'll give Zack one thing, he doesn't waste time. "Ekans, use poison sting." I almost couldn't see it from my position next to Lin, but I saw the snake open his mouth and rocket off the smallest sliver of liquid. I was impressed. Even through the fog in my mind I took note, _never challenge ekans to a spitting contest._

The attack hit square in the chest, making him cough.

"Use confusion, Aza." Lin said almost at the same time Zack said-

"Ekans, return." A red light shot out and grabbed the snake instantly reclaiming him. "This isn't over, you fraud," Zack said and then turned around and ran full out down the bank away from Cerulean.

"Get back here!" Lin growled and began to run after him.

"Lin," Aza said.

"Come on guys. That no good double-crosser is getting away."

"Lin," Aza began again, "I have been poisoned. I don't think it is the best time to chase him down."

"Um, yeah," I managed to say.

Lin stopped and looked back at us with fury in her eyes. I tried to smile back at her, but only my bottom lip was working so it looked more like I was drooling I think. And, although Aza was putting on a good tough guy act, I could see his face tinged with green and his knees were shaking. Lin sighed and walked back to us.

When she got close to Aza she swung her back off her shoulders and opened it. She pulled out a berry and handed it to him. Aza popped it in his mouth and chewed. He let a sigh of relief escape as the traces of the poison were cleaned. Then Lin looked at me.

"What's wrong with you?" she said.

"Um… I think need to forget something. Like my mind is full, but I don't know what."

"Oh," Lin said, smiling. "Forget tackle," Aza raised an eyebrow, "and learn quick attack. Good job, Ricochet."

* * *

As it turns out, the pokemon center in front of the Rock Tunnel was only five minutes away around the last bend in the road. We stayed slept there that night and even took the next day off to completely refresh ourselves. Lin asked me to tell Aza and her what happened after I went on my walk. I started to tell them, but I was interrupted when I got to the part with the crazy venomoth.

"After I tackled him to the ground he got mad and started to turn purple. Then he flowed up in the air and something started hitting me all over the place. I couldn't tell where it was coming from at all it was-"

"Confusion," Aza said.

"Exactly, Aza, it was so confusing that-"

"No, my thick skulled friend, confusion is a psychic move. The user focuses its mental energy into a force. They can then use that force to hit their enemy in seemingly random areas to confuse them and possibly even cause them to hurt themselves."

I felt a twinge in my tail where it was still a little bent out of place.

"By the way, Ricochet," Lin said, "what happened to your tail? It looks like something heavy landed on it."

"Nothing! Nothing is wrong with my tail. Something is wrong with your head if you think something is wrong with my tail. My tail has always looked like this. Can you believe it, Aza, Lin can't even remember what I look like. Wow, I wasn't gone that long. Sheesh. You are hopeless Lin. Absolutely hopeless. Ha! Can't even remember what your first pokemon looks like. I mean… wow."

**Epilogue:**

**Zack is being mentored by Christian Bale.**

**Ricochet cut off all his hair, just to see how it felt.**

**Nobody ever understood Aza, not even in the insane asylum. Now released, he lives in solitude as a sherpa.**

**Lin met the weird dude back in Viridian forest and got married. She now lives in Minnesota with several children.**


	10. Crossroads

**Author's note:**

**And here is our bonus chapter for our... fan? Stay tuned after the credits for a special preview.**

**

* * *

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**Crossroads**

"I can't believe they didn't call it Dark Cave," Lin said.

"Maybe it was already taken," I said.

"_Dark Cave? Really?"_ Aza said. _"Humans have such limited imaginations when it comes to naming their roads. Route 15? Rock Tunnel? Cycling Road?"_

"Yeah, humans have no imagination," I said. "They're like… like… uh…"

"_Please stop trying to help me,"_ Aza said.

Ok, technically Aza didn't say anything; he did some weird psychic thing. For some reason, Aza likes pokeball travel. The only time I see the kadabra is at a pokemon center or during a battle. _Too bad that doesn't stop him from talking._

"It's not a road," Lin said. We were standing in front of a place called Rock Tunnel. I wish I could describe it but I'll tell you the truth, it looked exactly like Mt. Moon to me. "The reason this place has no lighting is because it's undeveloped. It's not even a tunnel really. The Rock Tunnel is just a multi level series of caves that lead you to the other side of this mountain range."

"Oh, well, if it's just that…" I looked up at Lin. I didn't have to strain myself to see her face. Lin was very short for her or anyone else's age. All the winter clothing she wore made her look chubbier than she really was. Then again, I'm going off her wrist size. I've heard somewhere that small wrists equal thin body. At least one of Lin's wrists looked like a twig. I couldn't see the other because she kept it covered in a glove. She had lost its pair back at Mt. Moon, but seemed heck bent on keeping all of her flesh covered no matter how ridicules she looked.

"Maybe we should train a bit more before we go in," Lin's voice crackled.

_Of course, if I had a voice like hers than I couldn't avoid appearing ridiculous._ I thought.

"We might as well practice Ricochet's new technique," Lin said.

"Ha, yeah, this new move rules." Lin was talking about quick attack, the move I learned after fighting off that kid single handedly. "It's about time too. I was really getting tired of tackling."

"_If you wouldn't mind me making a suggestion," _Aza said. _"Quick attack, being a normal type move, may not be the most effective technique to develop at this time. The pokemon we will be facing are resistant to such attacks."_

"He's got a point," Lin muttered.

"Whoa! Wait! I just learned this. There's no way it can already be outdated!"

"It's not that," Lin said. "It's just that there are a lot of rock and fighting types in this place. Quick attack will work great in other places though." She started to walk away from Rock Tunnel and towards the tall grass.

"_See?"_ Aza said. _"You're still helpful, in the same sense; like a headache is helpful to diagnose a brain injury."_

"Thanks, Aza." My voice was so full of venom I swear I could have poisoned Aza with any move I had. "That's what I want on my tombstone: Here lies Ricochet – Helpful."

"_Oh, Ricochet, don't short change yourself."_ Aza said. _"Helpful wouldn't be the only thing listed. You're forgetting: annoying, fluffy, obnoxious, small, irritating-"_

"Wait, aren't irritating and annoying the same thing?"

"_-with a habit for stating the obvious."_ Aza finished.

"I hate you Aza."

"And I can't live without you Ricochet."

"Now, now," Lin said. "Let's get along."

We had reached some grassy area off away from the entrance to the Rock Tunnel and the pokemon center. Still, I couldn't believe a pokemon could just jump out at us here. _Are wild pokemon just drawn to grass?_ I bent down to sniff the green weeds. _Am I missing something?_ I chomped down on the grass. _Oh gosh, this is terrible!_

"Did you eat that out of curiosity or stupidity?" Aza said.

With my mouth full of disgusting greens, I turned my head over towards Aza's voice. At some point Lin had summoned him. Both Lin and he were giving me odd looks.

"Sometimes grass is good," I said between chewing. "Don't you know?"

"Ricochet, if you wanted a veggie diet, I'm sure I can find something at the poke mart." Lin said.

"Oh, yeah," I swallowed, "thanks, Lin."

Aza snickered, "Oh, you only eat vegetables now?"

My mind clicked a life time of observations in to place; "Wait, only veggies? What was I eating before?"

"A chemical mix of proteins, carbohydrates, and minerals," Lin said. "Lately I've been feeding you food that is rich in iron."

"Excuse me?" I said. "Iron? You've been feeding me metal?"

"No, no," Aza said. "Think of it less as a metal and more as a mineral. Minerals sound better than heavy metal poisoning."

"Poison?" I said.

"No," Lin sighed, which sounds like a gurgling charmander. "It's hard to explain, but it's good for you."

"Just like amputation can be." Aza said.

"You'd cut off my tail?" I said.

"You're not helping, Aza," Lin said.

"Of course he would think of the tail first," Aza muttered.

"Calm down, Ricochet. At least I'm not feeding you meat," Lin said.

"What's wrong with meat?" I said.

"Ah, the sheltered life an eevee farm provides." Aza said.

"Uhm…" Lin seemed to be stalling. She looked over at Aza.

"Oh no," Aza said. "You're all on your own for this one."

"We're not going to get any training done," Lin complained.

"Lin," I asked, "I don't get it. What's meat?"

"Well, remember that time I asked for something called a Tauros steak?"

* * *

Deborah had been walking for days. This was uncommon for her. Usually there was no need to leave her mountain top home. She could find everything she needed right there. Water, food, and on a clear day, she could see most of her world.

She couldn't see this land though. That's why she had to come here personally. It had required many days, but she kept going over the last mountain, one final swim, cross the ultimate dessert. Now she was here.

"So this is Kanto."

* * *

I stared down at the goop in front of me. It was grey as far as description goes, gray seemed applicable in a number of ways. I glanced over at Lin and Aza, who quickly looked back to a book and pretended to talk about training methods or something.

I glanced back down at the grey matter and tried to avoid the obvious connection between grey matter and-

"Are you going to eat that?"

I looked up to see a mankey looking at my dinner.

"Do you know what this is?" I asked.

"Well I guess that it's some sort of po-"

"Take it," I shoved the chow away from me. Then I headed back to my team. "I'm not hungry."

"Thanks," The fighting type said as he began to cannibalize the goop.

Aza and Lin kept talking as I got to them. Lin was leaning her chair back as usual. Aza, who used to be able to sit on the top of the chair, was now forbidden to do it. He set another chair next to Lin's, but didn't lean it back like she did. He was up still high enough to glance over at Lin's book.

As I got closer, the two cut off their conversation and looked at me through the corners of their eyes.

"So…" Lin said.

"How was dinner?" Aza said.

"You're both disgusting." I said.

"Lin?" a familiar voice sounded through the pokemon center.

"Isn't that-" Aza began.

Lin kicked her chair back so fast that I could have sworn she rocketed out at warp speed.

"Derf?" Lin said.

Sure enough, Derf was standing in the doorway of the PC. The setting sun behind him may have darkened his features but who else would wear a while lab coat in public.

Derf closed the door behind him and tilted his glassed. "Is that you, Lin? What are you doing here?"

"I can ask you the same. What brings a lab rattata out this far?"

Derf and Lin closed the distance between them until they stood in the middle of the PC.

"I bet you she gives him a hug." Aza said.

"I'll take that bet." I said.

Once the two were within prime hugging distance, they froze. Derf began to play with his glasses and Lin started to tug on a lock of her nasty, tangled hair. They stared awkwardly at each other for half a minute.

"I don't understand," Aza said.

"Lin fact twenty three: Lin doesn't touch humans," I said.

"I thought you'd be on route six or in Cerulean. What are you doing way out in the middle of nowhere?"

"I'm fine out here," Lin said quickly. "What about you? What chore are you doing for the Professor this time?"

"I'm delivering a very important object to a route off of Lavender town."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"…Oh-my-gosh, just ask him!" I shouted. I could do so safely because the attention of the people and pokemon in the pokemon center would shift away from me pretty fast. "You know you want to!"

Derf looked over at Aza and I. "I'd heard that you had a new pokemon. Your eevee's lungs seem to be stronger."

"All the better to scream with, my dear." Aza said.

"Well you showed me I had to get stronger. Now I am." Lin took a deep breath. "So, do you want to go through Rock Tunnel with me?"

"You mean together?" Derf said.

"This is painful," Aza said.

"Yeah, you know, with my sense of direction I could have wandered all the way here by accident," Lin said, then cringed. Clearly she wished she would have thought of the line earlier.

"Yeah, you totally would," Derf laughed than cringed. Clearly he wished he had denied what Lin had said.

"You're right," I said, "this is brutal."

"Um, sure." Derf recovered himself, "first thing tomorrow morning we'll head out. Is that ok?"

"Yeah, we have a lot to catch up on," Lin said.

Derf and Lin looked awkwardly at each other for another moment, then abruptly turned away form one another. Lin walked back to us and Derf went to the furthest distance possible in the opposite direction.

"Wow," Lin said, "this is going to be great." Then she remembered Aza and me. "I mean, it's going to be a lot easier to go through now." Aza and I looked at each other.

"I'll take that bet." I said.

_

* * *

The xatu talked about a tunnel._ Deborah thought. She stood at the mouth of some sort of cave system. It was nothing compared to the ecosystem underneath her home, but it would work to her benefit, especially the darkness. It was harder to travel the closer she got to civilization. Deborah could only travel at night this close to a route. The last thing she needed was for a citizen of Kanto to see her and start asking questions.

_At least the local pokemon haven't bothered me._ She thought.

The mouth of the tunnel loomed over her.

Deborah sighed. "I hope you're worth it."

* * *

"I hope that your job isn't keeping you away from the berry patch," Lin said.

"They are you're your berries," Derf said. "You know how the saying goes, if you want something done right…"

"Yeah, get a genius to do it for you," Lin said.

Derf blushed then said, "The berry patch is fine. The Professor doesn't' keep me so busy. You would probably like the work schedule yourself."

"_Hum… do I detect a passive aggressive war here?"_ Aza said to me privately. This was our new thing. When he wanted to talk to me alone, he would psycicly impress the feeling so Lin couldn't hear us. All I had to do to respond was to whisper.

"These two have history," I said in a low voice. "Sometimes I can't tell if they're enemies or friends."

"_Who said they had to be one or the other?"_ Aza said.

We reached the entrance to Rock Tunnel. Even in the early morning, the mouth of the cave was pitch black. It was as if light couldn't penetrate into the cave at all. Which shouldn't surprise me since it's covered in rock. As far as I know, all rock blocks light, except glass. _Wait, is glass a type of rock? It looks more like ice. No, it's not cold enough for ice. I don't think you can eat glass either. Then again, I've never tried. Maybe you need to melt it first, but you probably wouldn't eat it plane. Maybe you need some wood to go with it, or maybe plastic. Those usually come with windows. Hum, edible windows. A house you can eat. Just like Arazul's story of the two eevees and the jinx who tried to fatten them up and cook them. Why would someone eat something so furry? You'd have to get all the fur off first. Or do they like fur? What if it's some kind of sauce or spice for other food?_

"What do you think Ricochet?" Lin said.

_Crap! She was talking!_ "Err… would you rather have fur pudding or fur spiced glass shards?"

"_Your thought processes amaze me,"_ Aza said.

Lin gave me a funny look. "No, I was talking about- never mind. Ok Derf, let's light the lantern."

Derf lit his lantern and began to walk through the cave. "I still think that it's amazing you can communicate with your pokemon this way. Only a hand full of trainers can do that."

"I think it's less about my ability and more about my pokemon's ability," Lin said as she followed close to Derf's side.

"You've got that right!" I said. "Wait, you were talking about Aza weren't you?"

"_Of course she was."_ Aza snapped.

"Not all psychic types can do that," Derf said, "not even all kadabras. You've got a special pokemon there."

I cleared out my throat.

Derf looked back at me. I was following behind Lin as we made our way through the darkness.

"Of course your eevee is special as well," Derf said, "just in a different way."

"I'll take that as a complement." I said.

"_You shouldn't."_ Aza said.

"Ha! We could use a mind like your kadabra at the lab," Derf said. "We could really cut out a lot of busy work."

"_I do not do busy work,"_ Aza said.

"Or useful work," I said, "or helpful work, or work on general."

"And how are your pokemon doing," Lin said, "do they ever get out of their pokeballs or do you keep them cramped up all day?"

"_About Derf's pokemon,"_ Aza was speaking to me privately now, _"What do you know about them?"_

"Last time I checked, Derf had a squirtle, a nidorino, a growlithe and a raticate." I said. "The first is a stuck-up, stupid head."

"_Sounds like you two have a lot in common."_

"Why? Because he has a great defense too?" I guessed.

"_Yeah, sure. Anyway, a great defense is useless to my attacks. We shouldn't have to worry about him or the nidorino. It's the other two that will present a challenge"_

"I wouldn't write off that nidorino," I said. "I couldn't even beat it. It's probably the toughest of Derf's pokemon."

"_It's a poison type,"_ Aza said. _"I could take it down in one attack. That's type advantage for you."_

"Just because you have a type advantage, doesn't mean you'll win," I said. "I beat an onix and those are rock type."

"_Ah, I see the problem here. You're still putting yourself in the same class as me. When will you realize that I am much more powerful than you?"_

"When spoinks fly."

* * *

Deborah was frustrated, not a status she usually found herself in. She had been trying to track down the 'one' all night and so far had no success. A pokemon was making strange vibrations that were echoing through out the tunnel. It made sensing the presence of the 'one' extremely difficult.

Deborah hoped the 'one' was truly worth all this trouble. She knew better than to doubt the xatu's prophecies, yet she remained unconvinced one person could prevent the upcoming disaster.

"One thing at a time," Deborah said to herself. "Find the 'one', then I'll decide on the team's capability. But first, there's an obstruction I need to deal with."

* * *

"Confusion," Lin said.

Aza used his psychic powers to thrash the zubat. I never liked zubats. They've definitely made it to my top ten list of world's most annoying pokemon, only beaten by geodudes, metapods and abras/kadabras. Weak, numerous, and very ugly, the zubats had been attacking on and off for a few hours. Aza had been taking them all out with one attack. Their numbers were so numerous that Lin didn't bother recalling Aza to his pokeball. Now he walked along side us, complaining the whole way.

"These pokemon are definitely on my top ten list of most annoying pokemon." Aza said, "They're only beaten by oddishes and eevees."

"I would be mad, Aza," I said, "but seeing you have to waddle around has put me in such a good mood, I think I'll let it go."

"My mistake," Aza said, "zubats are beaten by oddishes, Ricochet, and than other eevee's."

"Boy, physical effort has sure put you in a bad mood," I said. "Do you want me to give you a grumpig back ride?"

"Do you remember when we first met?" Derf said.

Lin looked at him in surprise. They had been walking in silence for a while now. I guess you can only make passive aggressive comments for so long.

"Yeah," she said, "didn't I punch you?"

"At the end, yes." Derf seemed a little put out.

"And then I broke your glasses," Lin said.

"I was thinking about before that."

"You mean when I called you four eyes?"

"No, I was talking about the time I helped you move into the orphanage."

Lin laughed. "I don't think that opening the door for me counts as helping me move in."

"I was nine," Derf said. "Anyway, I was just going to say that I thought you were pretty cool ever since than."

"And I thought you were too," Lin admitted. "I only called you four eyes because, well, I was nine."

Silence.

"This is so not the 'tunnel of love' experience I was expecting." Aza said.

In this light it was hard to tell, but I could have sworn that Lin blushed. _Aza must have translated that last sentence for her._ I think Derf blushed too, but I have no idea why. Aza doesn't usually let anyone other than Lin understand what he and I say.

"Tunnel of love?" I said. "Wow! We're going to be rich!"

"You know, Ricochet," Aza said, "every once in a while you say something that reminds me of why I can tolerate your presence. Wait! Something's coming Lin!"

"What is it, Aza?" Lin said.

"It's either a floating sack of stupid or a giant zubat."

"Hey!" I said.

"I wasn't insulting you," Aza said.

"Oh, sorry, I just assumed."

"It's a golbat," Lin said.

It was tough seeing anything in all this dark. Still, I thought I caught sight of some large winged thing just outside of the lantern's light.

"I've got this one Lin," Derf said. He pulled out a pokeball and tossed it to the ground, "Go, squirtle."

"Ah, mister water-park himself," I said.

"I'm glad to see Lin still kept her wet blanket," the squirtle said as it emerged. "Gosh, I hope I get to kick your butt again."

"Sorry, you get to fight a grown up zubat. Have fun."

"Squirtle, shoot him down," Derf said.

The squirtle used his water gun attack to take a bad shot at an enemy he couldn't even see. When he missed, the golbat disappeared.

"Is it gone?" the squirtle said.

"If I've learned anything in my time outside the eevee farm, it's that the world isn't that convenient."

Sure enough, the golbat flew directly into the light. Now that I had a good look at it, I could appreciate its ugliness. Unlike its preevolution, this thing had eyes. They seemed to take up half of its head. The other half of its body was a mouth that I'm sure he never closed.

_Disgusting weirdo. _I thought. _Of course, I'd never say that._

"Disgusting little bloodsucker isn't it?" Lin said.

"Lin!" I said, relieved I could take the high ground, "this is a fellow pokemon!"

"That doesn't' make it the least bit attractive," Lin said.

"Look who's talking," I said. "Your hair is super gross."

"Out of curiosity," Aza said, "why did you pick her hair as oppose to her clothing, lack of general hygiene or cleanliness."

"Fur and hair are big things for eevees," I said.

"Well I'm glad we got all that cleared up," said the squirtle. "My desire to know Ricochet's opinions of attractiveness was distracting me from the fight."

I turned back to see the squirtle blasting away at the golbat. "Oh yeah, I forgot about you."

The golbat kept trying to swoop down on the squirtle but couldn't get close. The squirtle was just too fast at shooting out his water gun attack. The golbat was so concerned with avoiding he would swerve away every time.

"Squirtle, protect!" Derf said.

"Pft. What a dumb name for an attack." I said.

The water type ducked into his shell. The poison type thought that this was the perfect time to swoop in and hit the squirtle. The golbat tried to hit the squirtle with his wings. Nothing happened.

"Now squirtle!" the squirtle popped his head out of his shell and pumped a gallon of water gun down the golbats open mouth.

"I feel like I should say something clever here," I said.

"Please don't," Aza and squirtle said.

"You've still got it, Derf," Lin said. "Protect huh? Your squirtle is at an amazing level. It will evolve pretty soon."

"Evolve?" I said.

"Yeah, just wait until I'm a wartortle," the squirtle said.

I tried to picture a bigger version of this pokemon. _No, that's not right. There's always something else besides getting bigger. Just look at the golbat._ I pictured a big squirtle with huge eyes and a gaping mouth with two teeth.

"That's pretty ugly," I said.

"Oh, you've always thought that you were so special," The squirtle said.

"I am special!" I said. "I'm the best on this team!"

"Excuse me?" Aza said.

"Ha, you're the best?" the squirtle said. "Tell me, what do you contribute to the team?"

A throat was cleared. I saw that Derf and Lin were looking at squirtle and me.

"What are they saying?" Derf said.

"Oh, just trash talk." Lin said.

"Poorly constructed trash talk." Aza added.

"I hate you Aza," Squirtle and I said.

* * *

Deborah followed the strange vibrations closer to their route. The nearer she got, the more she was certain of the cause. _It's an onix. It has to be. Nothing else is that big._

She rounded another corner to see what looked like a moving pile of boulders thrashing around. The onix appeared to be crazy. _It's almost as if it were confused. But what golbat would dare attack an onix?_

Deborah checked out her surroundings. After awhile, she found what she was looking for. _These are drowzee tracks. A trainer must have come through here and confused this onix. He was probably in a hurry if he just left this pokemon here._

The onix continued to thrash and roar. Deborah sighed. "I'm sorry my friend but you are standing in my way. I don't suppose you could quite down?"

At the sound of her voice, the onix swung around and focused its bloodshot eyes on her.

"No? I thought not." Deborah prepared herself. "Well, there's always another way to get you to quite down."

* * *

"Confusion!" Lin said. "Well, do I even need to say it anymore?"

"It is my only attack." Aza said.

"This is so unfair." I muttered.

"What?" Aza said. "Do you want to fight him?"

I studied the mussel bound giant in front of us. Ok, giant was a bad word. It was two feet shorter than Aza even if it was taller than me. The really freaky part is the fighting type almost looked human. That is, if a human had no hair, no toes, and could only say "Machop!"

"No, I think you better take this," I said. "Not because I can't, but because you can."

"That hardly makes sense." Aza said. He only had to pycicaly wail on the machop for a few seconds before it was defeated. "And they dare compare my power to yours."

"That's quite a kadabra," Derf said.

"You say that too much," I said.

"Yeah," Aza said, "it's getting tiresome. When people praise you constantly, you just get bored. You know what I mean, Ricochet?"

"Shut up," I said.

The Rock Tunnel, if I had to sum it up in one word, was long; long beats out dark hands down. Let's face it, the night is darker than rock tunnel, at least the Viridian forest was. Unlike the Viridian forest, this place was pretty striate forward. I didn't feel like I could get lost. What I did feel like was dieing of boredom. Every creature we met here seemed to have a weakness to Aza or be resistant to me. I hadn't had a single battle sense I'd stepped foot in this cave. The time was crawling by.

_When I tell my life's story I'll have to leave non-eventful parts like this out._

"Machoke!" a deep voice called out of the darkness.

"… That's an evolution, isn't it?" I said.

"You're catching on," Aza said.

"I've got this one," Derf said. "You can't wear out your kadabra before we reach Lavender town." Derf tossed out a pokeball. "Besides, I want to show you my strongest."

One flash of pokeball latter revealed the one horned menace of Viridian forest, nidorino. He looked just as mean as when we first met him. It took all of my effort not to picture me skewered on top of his head. Then I thought of siscabob Aza and suddenly I felt at peace.

"Hey, long time no see," I said.

The nidorino ignored me.

"That's a good choice," Aza said.

The nidorino ignored him.

"Ok, now we have a problem," Aza said.

The machoke decided to enter into the light. Ok, remember my description of the machop? Get it into your head; add more mussels and at least another two feet, just taller than Aza. It had some type of fin things on its head which I can't imagine were very important. Of course with my luck, they would shoot out death lasers. The weirdest part was that the machokes had a belt.

"I'm starting to recognize a pattern here," Aza said.

"Why do we keep running into evolutions after we fight the basics?" Lin said.

"Let's just try not to flashback after this," Derf said.

The nidorino said nothing.

"… Where did he get a belt?" I asked.

The machokes charged the nidorino. You could immediately tell there was a huge difference in skill. Nido was calm, waiting for the order. The fighting type just attacked with out thinking.

"Double team!" Derf said.

At first I thought that my eyes were playing tricks on me. There were suddenly two nidorinos. No, that's not quite right. There was only one, but my eyes must have played some sort of trick on me.

"Double team."

I jumped. Lin had gotten down besides me without me noticing. She seemed ready to explain a technique.

"It's different with different pokemon but the idea is the same," She said. "You trick your opponent into attacking what's not there. You can use tricks of light, psychic projections, or illusions of movement. Some pokemon's speed is so great they can fool you with after images. Remember this one Ricochet."

I was about to ask why but was distracted by awesomeness. I'm a decent fighter. Just ask anyone who's not Aza, squirtle, nidorino, Blue, the Professor, the Rocket, Feral, Zip… well, you'll just have to take my word for it. This nidorino though, he was on his own level. The machoke couldn't even land a punch. The nido could evade everything and tease the fighting type. Not with words, like Aza, but with light touches of his horn, tapping the machop with his paw or flicking with his tail. All of it said, "You suck so much I can't even take you seriously," Derf hadn't ordered an attack yet, so the nidorino just showed off.

_Jezz, every time I try that, extraordinary events beyond my control shoot me down._ I thought.

"What do you know of this pokemon?" Aza said.

"What?" I said. "You're admitting to not knowing something? Please tell me someone's recording this."

"You're lack of humor aside," Aza said. "Where did he come from?"

"I don't know about that," I said. "He's some sort of Rocket pokemon that escaped. He attacked Lin and me in Viridian forest. He's horn twists and he spits at you."

"Is he mute?" Aza said.

"Nah, I heard him say something about 'home.'" I said. "He probably doesn't like you."

"Ok, nidorino," Derf said, "now!"

Boy, when nidorino goes on the offensive, he attacks without mercy. He started to do the charging thing he did on me, except he didn't pull up. The nidorino started ramming the machokes over and over again.

"That's got to hurt," I said.

"It's horn attack," Lin said. "It's a powerful Norman type attack."

"Translation: more powerful than anything you can do," Aza said.

The machoke went down quickly; Derf simply recalled his pokemon then said, "Shall we go now?"

"You're an amazing trainer," Lin said. "That nidorino is even more powerful than I remember. Did you figure out what that move I told you about was?"

"Kind of," Derf said. "It seems to be a poison type attack. I can't say that I fully understand it though."

"You will and then you're going to be unstoppable." Lin said, "Unless you fight me of course."

"Well I'm just glad I have all the tech at the lab to help me out," Derf said.

"That stuff only helps you out so much," Lin said. "You've got to experience it first hand."

"Yeah, well, when we have our next battle we'll just have to see who's right." Derf said. "Speaking of hands, what happened to the other glove I got you for your birthday?"

"It kind of got eaten by a zubat," Lin said.

"Ever get the feeling like you're the back ground to something more important than you?" I said.

"I bet you get that feeling a lot," Aza said.

* * *

The onix screamed in pain. He trashed against the cave walls, causing huge cracks to appear. The entire cave shook.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea," said Deborah. She began to retreat.

The onix blindly charged her. Or at least he charged to where he thought she was. Where he thought she was turned out to be directly below him. He busted through the floor and wound up crashing onto another level of the cave.

"The best laid plans…" Deborah started towards the hole in the ground.

* * *

"How's that growlithe?" Lin said.

I totally didn't flinch. Lin had gotten into an annoying habit of surprising everyone with uncomfortable questions. Then again, it was probably better than the uncomfortable silence in between the uncomfortable questions.

"Oh, well. We still have some problems," Derf said.

The terrain was a bit rougher here. The lanterns light cast large shadows over our path, only illuminating or warning us seconds before disaster. I would have liked to be carried by Lin but instead I was hugging her side. Besides, she's so distracted she would fall on top of me if I was in her arms.

"He seemed like quite a handful," Lin said.

"It's the police training," Derf said. "He's a leader, but the police taught him to lead through force. I've got some habits to break before-"

The entire cave rocked. And no, I don't mean 'rocked' in a good way. It was as if the ground just turned into Jell-O. I couldn't find good footing even with my four feet. Aza simply fell down on his butt.

"Ha!" I said. But before I could come up with a witty remark, Lin's hand swooped down and yanked me up.

"Derf!" she yelled, "above you!"

I thanked Arceus I couldn't see what was above me. After a few moments I didn't have to. Lin was running around like a combusken with its head cut off. I realized that she was dodging falling boulders.

"Over here, Lin!" Derf's voice was directing us towards a hollow space in the side of the tunnel. As Lin and I entered, he said, "This should hold."

"What's happening?" Lin said. She had to shout to make her voice heard over the sounds of cracking rocks.

"It's a cave in." Derf said.

"_No kidding,"_ Aza was speaking telepathically.

_He must be in his pokeball again._ Now that it seemed I was out of danger, I opened my eyes. The rumbling had stopped but it didn't look like we were out of danger at all. The hole in the wall may have saved us from being crushed but it also trapped us behind a wall of rock.

"Don't worry." Lin said. She placed me on her shoulder. Under normal circumstances, I would have rather been on the ground. However the ground just had a major seizure so I was fine right where I was. "I'll get Aza to-"

"No, don't waste his strength." Derf said. "I've got this." He reached towards his belt and summoned the most terrifying pokemon ever.

"I thought I smelled a raticate here," I said from the relative safety of Lin's shoulder.

The raticate ignored me.

"That seems to be happening a lot lately," I said. No one responded.

"Raticate," Derf said. "Get us out of here."

The raticate started to tunnel through the rock wall.

"Just don't cause anymore cave ins!" I advised.

"_As always, you're advice is exemplary."_ Aza said.

I would have argued with him but I didn't know what exemplary meant.

"How did you get that raticate?" Lin asked.

"Not the best time for more of your awkward questions!" I told Lin.

"It was abandoned after an incident on Mt. Moon," Derf said. "I was asked by the professor to take it in."

Lin didn't respond for a while. This gave us enough time to listen to shifting rocks and creepy scratching sounds. When she finally spoke, she softly said, "So you were assigned the growlithe, the nidorino and the raticate."

"Yeah, so?"

"Don't you get tired of letting that guy push you around?"

"I told you! I'm not a trainer!" Derf snapped his voice very intimidating for a fourteen year old boy.

"No, you're just some push over!" Derf may have had the upper hand with size and power, but when it came to sounding ferocious, nobody beats Lin's messed up voice. "Seriously, didn't you only take the squirtle because it was the last one available?"

I think I heard Derf grind his teeth. "Can we talk about this when we're not in a life and death situation?"

Lin made another threatening sound, but said nothing.

"_Why does no one else care what started the cave in?"_ Aza said. _"There could be something terrible waiting for us on the other side of that wall."_

I couldn't say anything. My mind was distracted by the fact that we were in an extremely small space. A very extremely small place with what seemed like no air. _Air, air, I need air._ I began to breathe quickly and shallow. What made everything worse was that Lin was no longer assuring me that everything was going to be ok.

Deborah was a distance walker, not a marathon runner. The onix was clearing floors faster than she could climb through the gaping holes it left.

"Not…" she took another few breaths, "good." The 'one' was here. The 'one' who the xatu said would prevent the disaster. _And now the 'one' is in danger._ She thought. _If the onix hasn't already finished dropping the tunnel on everyone._

Deborah stopped; it was useless to keep chasing something she couldn't keep up with. Instead she focused her gift outward, hoping to find some trace of the 'one'.

_Come on! If you are the 'one' show me!_ She thought. She could hardly focus over the vibrations of the confused onix. _Do something. Yell! Scream! Show yourself to me!_

Amazingly, Deborah got exactly what she asked for. She felt the presence of the 'one', faintly, but there. And the 'one' was right in the path of the charging onix.

"You've got to be joking!" Deborah shouted at fait itself and took off after he beast.

"How much longer?" I said.

"It's going to be longer every time you ask me that!" the raticate shouted over his shoulder. Ok, well, whatever counts for a shoulder on a raticate.

"_Ricochet, buddy," _Aza said. _"Listen to me; we're going to get through this. We're gong to be ok."_

"You think so?" I said.

"_No,"_ Aza said, _"but I've heard that lying can comfort people before they die."_

I began to shake. Not out of fear mind you. It was probably a fever or something. Yeah, I was sick.

Lin plucked me off her shoulder and held me in her arms. Somehow being wrapped tightly in her arms was more comforting than being in this small hole.

"Wait," I said. "Can't you just teleport us Aza?"

"_Sure, right into a boulder." _Aza said. _"Of course I could just teleport us to the pokemon center we just left and abandon Derf. I would be ok with either option personally."_

"I think we're almost there," Derf said. "Just a few more minutes."

Suddenly the ground shook beneath us.

"Not again!" I definitely didn't wail.

There was a rushing sound and than the rocks that had blocked us were cleared away. Lin ran out of the hole in the wall, followed by Derf.

"What was that?" she said.

"I've got a pretty good idea." Derf said. "You're not going to like it." He held up the lantern. I assume this was to get a better look at whatever was attacking us. I don't know what he expected to see. I only saw rocks. The boulders littered the path. The earth quake must not have stopped because some of them were still moving. In fact, they were moving together. It was as if they were all in one long string.

"Oh please tell me that it's not what I think it is." I said.

"_It's most definitely not an onix."_ Aza said.

"Growlithe," Derf said. "I choose you!"

The growlithe, the leader of the pack, burst out onto the scene.

"A rock monster, huh?" Leader said. "No problem."

"Bite!" Derf said.

The growlithe took off to attack the onix.

"A fire type Derf?" Lin said. "Are you nuts?"

"It's already hurt. And it's confused," Derf said. "We only need to finish it."

Lin set me down then whispered to me. "Alright Ricochet; we don't have time to play by the rules here. I want you to use iron tail on this thing."

"Err, can't we let Leader get beat up a bit first?" I said.

"That onix could cause another cave in at any moment. And it's using rage. It's a move that gets more powerful the more the pokemon is hurt." She said. "I know you can do this."

I remembered back to my last battle with an onix. _I must have gotten stronger sense than._ "Ok Lin, let's do this."

I looked over to see how Leader was doing. It wasn't good. He couldn't even get close to the onix. The rock type wasn't really trying to keep him at bay but the constant thrashing made it difficult to get near. _But why take the direct approach?_ I looked to he sides of the cave. _If I could climb those, I could get enough air to jump onto him than hit him with- wait, what am I thinking! That's insane!_

"That's a good idea." Lin said. She must have been following my eyes. "Go for it."

"This is a dumb idea." I said.

"_Well of course,"_ Aza said, _"You came up with it. You have no one but yourself to blame"_

"No matter what happens, I can always blame you, Aza."

I ran to the left of the battle, staying as near to the wall as I could. When I got closer to the onix, I started climbing up the wall. _Come on Leader; just keep him from noticing me a little longer. _I crept up the sloping walls until I was parallel with the onix. _All right, now or never. _I took a deep breath than tossed myself from the wall. I waited until the onix was below me, than I concentrated on my tail. It started to harden my fur. It got heavier, yet I seemed to fall at the same speed as usual. _Wow! The heavier you are doesn't seem to effect how fast you fall! What an amazing disco-_

CRACK!

Iron tail met rock body. I could tell the plan didn't go exactly according the way I wanted it to, because the onix was still moving. Pretty soon I was moving too. The onix flung me towards the lantern light.

"AAAHH!"

I saw a hand shoot up. I went from a hundred to zero in a split second.

"_Nice catch Lin."_

"Where are you going!" I heard Leader say. "It's getting away!"

Lin was still holding me so I shifted myself around to see the onix barreling away.

"Err… should we go after it?" I said. _Man, this thing is way stronger than Brock's onix._

"Yeah, if that onix doesn't get knocked unconscious then it could harm others in the area." Lin said. "Derf, let's-"

"You cheated."

Lin turned around to face Derf. "What do you mean?"

"That move is not approved by the pokemon league. That's a steal type move." Derf said.

"Derf," Lin said, "We don't have time for this."

"When I heard about Brock," Derf said. "I thought that I was wrong about you. But now it makes sense. Is this how you've gotten this far, by cheating?"

"_Lin," _Aza said. _"Not trying to complain, but don't you think-"_

Lin dropped me. It is a good thing that eevees always land on our feet. The sore back I have for days afterwards was totally unrelated.

"I'm so sick of you doubting me," Lin shouted. "I'm perfectly capable of looking after myself!"

"For how long? Until you're put in jail? Until you get caught cheating so many times that you're banished form the league?"

"Don't try to make this about my dream. You're just too scared to live your own. You could be so good Derf, but you keep staying in Oak's shadow. You should have come with me to be a trainer."

"For the last time I don't want to be a trainer! I don't want to battle. I don't want to see the world! I like where I'm at. Being a trainer is your dream, not mine!"

"Well then, why do you always try to make me doubt myself? Why are you trying to stop me from living my dream?"

"I don't know! Why do you want me to leave our home?"

"Because I want you with me!"

…

I didn't dare say anything. I was surprised that Aza didn't' take the silence as an opportunity to make fun of me.

"I can't leave my home," Derf said. "Wasn't Pallet town your home?"

Lin was quite for a while. Then she softly said, "No, I don't know if any place can ever be my home."

Lin and Derf were looking at each other. Derf's expression was easy to read. I could tell he wasn't angry. Really, he just seemed sad. Lin's face was a bit harder to read. She was further from the light and I wasn't at the right angle. If I had to name it though, I'd go with tired. She looked exhausted.

"_I don't mean to interrupt, but…"_

"We need to stop that onix," Lin said.

"Yeah," Derf said, "ok, let's do this."

* * *

The 'one's' vibrations were still active. _Thank Arceus._ Deborah thought._ I can still reach-_

A blast of information hit so hard that Deborah almost screamed in pain and shock.

The mother screams in pain. They are tearing at her guts. They are breaking her apart. The blood flows into the water. The water is poison. It kills all life. All those people, all those lives- they will burn or be washed away.

"Ah!" Deborah shook the vision from her head. _That wasn't the same disaster. No, that's much closer. Something terrible is about to transpire in Kanto._

"It's got to be tired," Lin said, "do you think you can hit it with squirtle?"

We were all running through the caves. Of course, like always, we were running towards what was trying to kill us. _At least it's easy to follow._ I was in Lin's arms, not because I was afraid, but because I was slow.

"Maybe," Derf said, "it's hard to hit a moving target. Can't your kadabra hit its mind?"

"I don't want to risk mixing up psychic powers with whatever has hurt this onix." Lin said as she jumped clear of some rubble. "What if I can get him to stay still?"

"Wait!" I said. "This involves me getting hurt doesn't it?"

"_She has my vote." _Aza said.

"Alright!" Derf said. "Slow him down. I'll blast him."

We emerged into a large cavern. It was filled with the echoes of crashing rocks. I couldn't see the onix but I did see something that lifted my heart. Towards the end I could see a light.

"It's the exit!" I said.

Lin set me down. Than she and Derf started walking towards the light. "We've made it?" one of them said.

I was so relived to see real light that I just stood there and let the humans walk ahead. "We're going to make it."

"_Aren't we forgetting something?" _Aza warned us.

The crunching sound behind me gave me enough time to see a living boulder swinging to my head. I don't know how to describe a critical hit but a rage attack to the face form a twenty eight foot living rock is as close as I could ever get. This time Lin wasn't there to catch me. I hit the side of the cave. The pain was so intense that I could barley stand.

"_Ricochet! He's barley conscious Lin! Send me out!"_ Aza said.

The light form the entrance made it easier to see. What I saw though didn't make sense. Lin didn't call out Aza. Instead she was marching towards the onix itself.

"Hey. Over here!" Lin waved her hands over her head. "Can you hit me? Come on!"

"Lin, NO!" I struggled to get to my feet.

The onix focused on the little human in front of it. It slowly razed its massive body over her. Than it let itself fall like some huge tree of rock.

"Lin!"

A huge stream of water blasted into the onix from the side. The squirtle was using a much more powerful water gun then I'd ever seen. I realized that he was pushing the onix's path away from Lin.

"Get out of there!" I yelled.

Lin threw herself away form the onix. The rock type crumbled beside her. It didn't get back up.

"Very impressive," A voice said. It came from behind me but when I looked around to see who spoke, I saw nothing.

"Who's there?" I said.

"Who are you talking to?" Lin said.

"There's something here with us," I said.

"_I don't sense anyone else. You imagined it. Now let's get out of here before anything else happens,"_ Aza said.

"Yeah," Lin said as she came over to pick me up, "let's get out of this stupid tunnel."

"I couldn't agree more," Derf said.

As we headed out of the tunnel, I turned back to stare into the darkness. _I didn't just imagine that, did I?_

* * *

"Very impressive." Deborah said to herself as she watched the group leave. "Who would have guessed that _you_ would have been the 'one'? You have grown into quite the fighter haven't you? I see no reason to doubt anymore. I trust the future to you now. And perhaps you can even prevent the disaster that will befall your home."

* * *

"We're just doing our duty ma'am," Derf and Lin said in unison. Lin picked up Aza's pokeball and motioned for me to follow. We exited the pokemon center first with Derf right behind us.

Lin and Derf stood side by side looking over Lavender town. They stayed that was for a while. Lavender town was small and quite. It's the type of place you could miss entirely if you weren't looking for it. The only grand part was the huge cemetery at the edge.

I looked back at the two humans. They were standing at crossroads, not wanting to leave but incapable of staying put. I noticed Lin had lost her other glove. I don't know if she lost it in Rock tunnel or if she finally threw it away.

"Well, I'm of," Lin said. She started walking away. "Goodbye, Derf."

"Yeah," Derf said, "see you."

Lin and I walked away from him without looking back.

**

* * *

Coming soon to a theater near you:**

**I love you…**

**THUD!**

**You love me…**

**THUD!**

**You'll all die, can't you see?**

**THUD!**

**I will gut you all and feast on your remains,**

**THUD!**

**I'm a killing machine with brains.**

**Jurassic Park 4: Purple Death**


	11. Worst Nightmare

**Author's note:**

**So yeah, about that whole every month thing…**

* * *

**Worst Nightmare:**

Ricochet

6:45 a.m.

"Seriously." I said "Who wakes up this early in the morning when you don't have to?"

"We do have to, Ricochet." Lin suppressed a yawn. "Early to bed early to rise-"

"Makes a pokemon's hit points go up, gives them love, and increases their special stats. I've heard it," I said. "I could take it more seriously, too, if you wouldn't stop skipping the first step."

"Why, Ricochet," Aza said, "I believe you have no problem going to bed early."

"I'm saying she skips the first step for her. And so do you. Let me guess, psychic pokemon brains are so powerful that you can sleep and stay awake at the same time."

"Was that supposed to be a shot at me?" Aza said.

"No! You'll know when I'm taking a shot at you?" I said, letting my voice creep higher.

"…was that supposed to be a shot at me?" Aza said.

"I don't know! What do you think?" I yelled.

"Ricochet! Aza!" Lin was using her quite voice. Let me tell you something. When Lin uses her quite voice it sounds like a rock wall about to give way right above you. You'd hear it in a call center. "Don't wake anyone else up. Argue latter. Let's go."

I checked the pokemon center we had been sleeping in. A few heads came up, most of them pokemon. They were giving Aza and me the look. "Fine," I whispered, "let's take this outside."

"Technically, an argument can't be taken anywhere," Aza whispered. "It's a metaphysical concept that-"

"You know what I meant!"

* * *

Ricochet

7:12 a.m.

Poster boards and sticks gave it away. These people were preparing for battle. _No wait, I think the word is protest. Yeah, they're Protestants._

"Oh, how delightful," Aza said in his you-can't-tell-if-I'm-being-sarcastic voice. "What's wrong with the world now?"

"We could go ask them," Lin muttered.

"Lin, I'll pretend this team is a democracy and vote no," I said. "Remember what happened last time we interfered with one of these revivals?"

"_I don't,"_ Aza said from inside his pokeball.

"You weren't there," I said.

"_My mistake. I keep forgetting. It feels like I've been around you for an eternity."_

"We got attacked by an outrageously upset man." Lin was making more and more of these interrupting statements. I think she had gotten a good sense of when another fight between Aza and I was brewing. I would have been upset that she was cutting off my awesome comebacks if she didn't do it to Aza just as much as me.

"_Well, that was a long way form here, right?"_ Aza said. _"What are the chances of running into-"_

"Don't say it!" I said.

"_For the last time, there is no correlation between saying an unlikely event may not occur and it actually occurring."_ Aza said.

"You're wrong." I said. "And I've got a month of proof to back me up."

Lin started walking towards the group. The humans weren't shouting yet so I guessed it was safe. In fact, when I got closer, I could tell the people were still preparing the rigorous day of sign waving ahead. Many didn't have their sticks connected to their posters yet.

"Excuse me, miss," Lin had somehow found the oldest, most peaceful looking woman in the group of rapid protesters. "Could you tell me what this is all about?"

_Here it comes._ I thought.

"Why, certainly, young lady," The old lady said.

"Huh?" I said.

"_Expecting something else?"_ Aza said.

"You see this tower behind us?" the old lady said.

I glanced up to see a huge tower looming over me. I've seen wider buildings before but this one was definitely the tallest. Its windows were dark, almost like the light wasn't getting through. I didn't see any movement in there either. The scratching of marker on paper was the only disturbance to the silence. "Gee, how did I miss this thing?"

"_Did we order another example of your lack of observational skills?"_ Aza said. _"I thought we'd had enough."_

"The Lavender tower," Lin said, "the largest graveyard in the world."

"Wait, run that by me again." I said.

"Exactly," The old lady said, "and now the people in charge are telling us to move all the graves."

"How many dead pokemon are we talking about here?" I said.

"That seems… I don't know. Silly?" Lin struggled to find the words. Clearly she was upset about something.

_I wonder what it is._ I thought.

"And they're doing it all for a radio tower." The old lady said.

"_They're placing their radio tower on the most eastern part of this continent." _Aza said. _Am I the only one that can see the flaw in this?"_

"You're actually taking this seriously?" I said. "I'm shocked."

"_Just because I don't take you seriously doesn't mean I can't take anything seriously."_

"Where would they put the graves?" Lin asked.

"Oh they don't really care," The old lady said. "Mr. Fugi offered to help house the graves but who knows any more."

"He has?" Lin said.

"You haven't been here too long have you, young lady?"

"No, I got in yesterday."

"Then, I guess I have to be the first to tell you," The old human said. "About a month ago, people started to have mysterious accidents while staying in the tower. Most of the victims came from the crews who were scoping out the place to prepare for the removal. Then the accidents started happening to everyone who entered. It started happening so often that Mr. Fugi ordered everyone out of the tower and closed it down. Latter, he sent in a bunch of channelers. That's when we figured it out."

"I don't like where this is headed," I said.

"The Lavender Tower was being haunted," The old human said.

Aza snorted, which probably wasn't easy when your body was energy inside of a ball the size of a peach.

"Please, continue," Lin said.

"_You're not taking this seriously, are you?"_ Aza said to Lin.

"The channelers would come and go for a few days, but we could tell there were fewer and fewer each time."

"They were giving up?"

"No, we never saw any leave tower. It was as if they vanished."

"I didn't see any channelers in the PC."

"Exactly."

"I see," Lin said, "but what about Mr. Fugi?"

"He started to act strange before- well, he would stay up late into the night. Then he started sneaking around town. People have sworn that they saw him breaking into the crewmen's housing. The last time anyone saw him, he was walking towards the tower."

"When did that happen?" Lin said.

"Three days ago. A day after the scream."

"What?"

The old lady sighed and closed her eyes. "I've been living in this town for 57 years, and I've never heard anything like it. It wasn't human, I'll tell you that much. It came from the tower and seemed to fill the whole town. Since then no one's gone in the tower and come back out."

Lin stopped asking questions. She just gazed up at the tower.

"…crap. We're going in there, aren't we?" I said.

* * *

Ricochet

11:57 a.m.

I wasn't tired but I could have used some chow. Lin had been training us all morning in the route to the west of Lavender town. Now we were headed back to the town. I thought it was strange since Lin usually carry some food with her to keep us in the practice field longer.

"_You're planning on going in tonight right?"_ Aza said.

"Wow!" I said. "I assumed we were going to enter a blasted, hunted tower, but why does this have to cut into sleep time. Besides, aren't ghosts less active during the day?"

"_There are no such things as ghosts."_

"Yes, there are," Lin said.

"_Lin? I would have expected this form Ricochet, but you?" _Aza said. _"You should watch less TV."_

"You should watch more," Lin said. "Have you ever heard of Agatha?"

"_No, I can't say I have."_

"She's one of the Elite Four. A few years back, she showed up with a new type of pokemon. She called them ghost types. The biggest one was called haunter and there was a mean one called gengar."

"_They must have been a different type, though." _Aza said. _"Just because this Agatha said they were ghosts doesn't make it true."_

"People tried to disprove her for a while. They saw all their pokemon faint before her."

"_Not one could beat her?"_

"Lance could, and other than that, not a one." Lin continued, "She's the only trainer in Kanto that was able to capture one and the only one to know the secrets behind them."

"Don't they have weaknesses?" I said. "Everything has weaknesses."

"Not that the general pokemon community knows," Lin said. "Although, we have put together some facts. First, physic pokemon don't last long against them."

"Ha!" I said. "Suddenly I'm not so afraid anymore. Let's go in and see Aza get humiliated."

"And second," Lin continued, "normal type attacks don't affect ghost types at all."

"_And that's why one should wait until they hear all the facts."_

"Wait," I said, "so you're telling me both Aza and I are useless if there are ghosts in there?"

Lin said nothing. She just looked towards the tower in the distance.

"We're still going in there huh?"

* * *

Ricochet

3:00 p.m.

"I said psychic." Aza said.

"No, I'm absolutely sure that you said psycho." I said.

"Ricochet, I think I saw some food right around that corner, why don't you scamper off and eat it." Aza said.

"I would, but there might be a ghost over there. To bad there's not a useful pokemon nearby that can help me." I said.

"Why don't you ask Lin?" Aza said. "Don't you usually rely on her to protect you?"

"It's part of the package of being a free range pokemon," I said. "Some of us won't hide in an extra-dimensional pocket."

"I like how you took something that was a major flaw in your life and turned it into a plus," Aza said. "And 'extra-dimensional pocket?' where did you learn such a big word?"

"A thesaurus," I said. "On a related note, do you want to know what I found under know-it-all?"

"A referral to the entry on small furry pokemon?" Aza said.

"You know what, you're right," I said. "I sure wish the only fur I had was facial. That seems to be the norm around here lately."

"You couldn't pull it off." Aza said.

"No, but I really wish I could."

"Were you attempting to threaten me?" Aza said.

"I thought I wasn't smart enough for threats," I said. "You must have hallucinated it."

"I know that you will be seeing stars shortly." Aza said.

"That's enough!" Aza and I looked over to Lin. She was still in her V positioned chair, but she was giving us a dirty look over one of her many books. "You two need to learn to like each other."

"Liking someone isn't something you learn," I said.

"You can't train us on this Lin," Aza said.

Lin sighed and rocked her chair forward until all legs were touching the floor again. "Actually, I can, but that's not the point. Listen, both of you have been fighting each other since the day you met. I've stayed out of it until now because I thought you could resolve it on your own."

"Lin, you're taking this, too, seriously." I said. "Just because I think he's a stuck-up, ugly know-it-all doesn't mean the worlds ending."

"I agree with Ricochet's statement," Aza said. "Just because I think he's a stuck-up, ugly-"

"Yeah, I get it," Lin cut Aza off. "You both think this is no big deal, but sometimes the big problems start very small. If you two don't learn to see the good in one another you'll split the team. And a divided team is every trainer's worst nightmare."

"I'll tell you my worst nightmare, being stuck with this guy for eternity," I said.

"Likewise," Aza said.

Lin sighed, "Just promise me you'll think about it."

"You assume Ricochet is capable of introspection."

I ignored Aza's comment, instead going for the suck-up route of attack. I figured I'd gain more points with Lin this way. Plus I had no idea what introspection was.

"Lin, why are we here?" I said.

"An existential question?" Aza said. "Maybe I was wrong."

"What do you mean, Ricochet?" Lin said.

"Well, I was talking to some of the pokemon earlier, and they all said there's no gym leader here. They said most of the main stream trainers go to Saffron and Vermilion city after they fight Misty."

"That's actually a fine question," Aza said. "Why did we go so far out of our way?"

"A little variation is good." Lin said. "If we do the same thing every trainer does then we'll risk developing the same habits they do. This will make us less predictable."

"Is that the only reason?" Aza said.

"Well, um… no." Lin looked a little mareep-ish. "Also I wanted to add another member to the team. A cubone."

"Wait, the pokemon that wears its mother skull? That pokemon?" I said.

"Yep. You see, it's always been my favorite pokemon."

"Next to eevees right?"

"So your choice is merely sentimental," Aza said. "Not the best motivation for increasing the team's numbers."

"I'm aware of that," Lin said, "But there are a number to benefits to having a ground type."

"Let's dial back a bit," I said. "What was this about favorite pokemon?"

"It's nothing Ricochet," Lin said. "It's just something I've thought since I was a little girl."

"As appose to the grown up 14 year old you are now?" Aza said.

"Anyway, let's get some sleep," Lin said, "we're sneaking into the tower, and we could be up all night."

"Anyone else going to point out the danger of walking into a hunted tower at night?" I said. "No wait, I already did."

* * *

Ricochet

10:48 p.m.

The door was unlocked. My hopes were dashed. Lin and I entered. I still thought it was unfair of Aza to stay inside his pokeball. _He should be out here with the rest of us._ I tried to push the thought away. _Lin told us to think of each others good points. Ok, then Aza is… able to work the vending machines. There, that's good._

The inside of the tower was a bit disappointing. It was well lit, clean and quite. _I hope this place doesn't turn me off to bright clean places. I don't have many other places to go._

Both Lin and Aza were staying quite. We didn't want to give ourselves away to the people of Lavender or whatever was inside the place. The problem with that is, when I can't talk, I usually think. Sometimes, like when I'm eating, thinking is ok. Other times, like when I'm in a haunted tower, thinking is a bad thing.

_Well, ok, nothing bad yet. Maybe we won't find anything. Unless this is all a trap. Unless the ghosts are waiting for us to reach a higher floor so no one will hear us scream. Unless they're already with us!_

"Ricochet-"

"Get away from me you undead-"

"Shhh!" Lin said.

"Oh, yeah, sorry." I whispered.

"We're not going to find anything on the first floor. Let's go up."

I followed Lin to the stares. As we began to climb them, I thought about what Lin said earlier. _She likes cubones? Has she even met one? I'm sure that she's just saying what she used to think. I've got to be her favorite type now._

The second floor was beyond creepy. Not that I was scared, I'm describing the environment. The only lights in the place were, too, few and small to make much of a difference from the dark. To tell you the truth, it turned a pitch black night to a late dusk. I could have sworn that there was fog in here too. _How does fog even get inside a building?_ The floor was slippery tile which isn't creepy in itself but this place echoed like none other. I couldn't tell if what I was hearing was my own paws against the tile echoing back at me or a ghost creeping towards us. Even with these creepy, and not frightening, facts, there was something else that made this a darker experience. I just couldn't place my paw on it.

"Aza," I whispered, "what are all these tall, stones with rounded tops?"

"_They're graves,"_ Aza said. _"You burry dead pokemon in them."_

"Ok," I said, "on a side note, when I ask a question you know I won't like the answer to, please insult me instead."

"_Will do, buddy."_

The graves were tall, at least to me. Lin could probably see over them but she's a giant. For a normal guy like me the place looked like a maze. As I followed Lin through the labyrinth I started to read some of the words on the stones. Most had a big name at the top. I think most were just names of a pokemon species. The majority read 'caterpie' or 'rattata.' _Oh yeah, way to show your love for your dead friend. Never give him a name and then put him under a stone. Wait a minute… how can you burry someone in the floor of a tower?_

My thoughts were interrupted by a weird grave stone. It read 'Toast.'

"Ha! What a dumb name. Who would name someone after food?"

"Oh, yeah," I dropped my voice back down, "sorry."

"_Not very respectful to the dead are we?" _Aza cheated. He could speak directly to our minds so he didn't have to worry about volume.

"It's not like he'll hear me."

"Get out."

I froze. _Was that Lin?_ The voice had that same raspy sound to it. I glanced up at her. She was looking around like she was trying to see what had called out to us. _Crap. I almost wish that had been Lin._

We stood around for another few moments.

"_So are we going or not?"_

"Oh, come on, don't try to act all brave," I said. "There's definitely something in this room with us."

"_What are you talking about? I don't sense anything."_

"You didn't hear that, Aza?" Lin whispered in her almost-as-attention-attracting-as-yelling way.

"_Technically, I don't hear anything in here."_ Aza said from inside his pokeball. _"I simply use my power to since changes in the outside world and make conjectures."_

Lin reached for her one pokeball. One flash latter, Aza was standing next to us.

"That wasn't an invitation to force me out of the pokeball," he said.

"I want you to use all six of your senses on this one," Lin said. "I couldn't tell where that voice was coming from, but it sounded far away. Let's keep going."

"Quick question," I whispered as we started to move again. "I don't know if you answered this or not since I usually tune you out when you're not talking about me, but why did we even go into this tower?"

"Sometimes cubones will sneak in here to morn their mothers. It's the only way to find them." Lin said.

"So our plan was to ambush a pokemon paying his respects to the dead?" I said.

"Well, when you say it like that…"

"That's a great idea!" I said. "What a way to catch them completely off guard."

"Err…" Lin looked over at Aza, who said, "I think he's being sarcastic. Anyway, are there any wild psychic types in this area?"

"No," Lin said. "Why?"

"You said you could understand the voice but I couldn't sense it. The only way that is possible is if you were spoken to psychical. If no psychic pokemon are in this area than it stands to reason we must be dealing with a trainer who has a powerful psychic pokemon."

"Or it could be a ghost," I said.

"Never make assumptions," Aza said, "even if there are ghost type pokemon it doesn't mean they can be blamed for everything we don't understand."

"True," Lin said, "and we can't afford to make any assumptions here. Can you sense anyone's mind, Aza?"

"Not passively," He said. "Perhaps if I were to meditate and concentrate I could. I would suggest moving to another floor though. The trainer we are looking for could be far off and I'd like to get as close as possible."

"Oh, the stairs are right over there."

I rounded another grave and the stair case came into view. "Why did they put this on the other side of the room? Why don't they just have one stair case going all the way to the top?"

As we began to hop, some of us climbed, up the stairs, Aza said, "Fair question. Why do they only build houses with one room? Who pays for pokecenters? These are the enigmas of our time."

"Must have something to do with moon stones," Lin mumbled.

When we reached the third floor Aza insisted that we walk to the middle of the room, something about psychic blah blah blah. I kind of tuned out. Instead I checked out all the stones. Some of them were your generic 'parasect', while others had little phrases like, 'to my beloved graveler, who never did recover from self-destructing.' Some of them had detailed pictures as well, like the drawing of a pidgeys face or a portrait of a nidoran.

"Ok, I'm ready," Aza sat down. I tried not to laugh because kadabras don't look like they were made for sitting.

Nothing happened for a while. _What if all this psychic stuff is mumbo jumbo? I bet he's faking it. At least I have all these cool portraits to look at. Now that I think about it, these statues are pretty creepy too._

"Aza?" Lin said.

"Nothing yet," Aza said.

I was still checking out the carvings. There seemed to be more here then in the rest of the tower. Most were pokemon I'd never seen. _It's hard to believe that there are so many different-_ my sight hovered over a group of graves. "Uh…guys?"

"Anything, Aza?" Lin said.

"I don't sense anything." Aza was clearly frustrated. "There's not a living soul in here."

"Did you have to say it like that?" Lin said.

"Guys…" I said. The graves I was looking at had an eevee carving. That was creepy in and of itself. The kadabra statue right next to it though was down right terrifying. And then next to that… "Lin, people don't get buried here right?"

"No, why?"

"Is Lin a common name for a pokemon?" I asked.

"Not really." Lin said.

"I've got nothing." Aza said. "Are you sure you heard something?"

I walked closer to the grave stone eevee. "Did you focus on the gravestones?"

"You mean the inanimate piece of matter. No, it never occurred to me."

"Check them." Lin said.

I could hear Azas sigh as he went back to work. My eyes couldn't leave the carving eevee. _Is it my imagination or does that look like me?_

The image responded by winking at me.

"By Arceus!" Aza whispered. "They're all around us!"

"How many, Aza?" Lin whispered.

"They're everywhere." He said.

"Get out."

There was nothing distant about the voice this time. It seemed to surround us. It was still in that low gravely voice but much too loud. I the graves seemed to pulse at the sound.

"GET OUT!"

The voice shook the ground. Then faces emerged from the graves all around us. I saw black gas and fangs but I couldn't make out what was around us.

"Ahh!"

_That was Lin!_ I looked over my shoulder to see Aza and Lin. Aza looked unconscious. Lin seemed to be struggling with a large black shadow. "Lin!"

I tried to run over to her but another blast echoed through the tower, knocking me off my feet.

CRACK!

_Oh no, please tell me that-_ through the swarm of fangs and eyes, I saw the floor around us start to give way.

CRACK!

And then I was falling. My last thoughts before hitting the floor below us were clear. I knew that despite our run of good luck, fate had finally caught up with us and we were never leaving this tower.

* * *

The Rocket

X days before

_"You cannot be serious."_ Baku said.

"You haven't heard of Agatha?" the Rocket said.

"_Why on earth would a wild pokemon know about a specific trainer?"_ Baku said.

"She's a member of the Elite Four."

"_They could only find four?"_

"Yeah, well, she discovered a new type." The Rocket continued. "Something called a gengar."

"_Stupid name."_

"I don't know what strengths and weaknesses they have though."

"_Their strength is they cannot be hurt. Their weakness is they're imaginary."_

"Either way, we have a job to do." The Rocket had no trouble looking inconspicuous. He had gotten quite good at disguising his mumblings to the psychic type on his belt. Not that it was easy, but far better than the alternative. He could have just let Baku ramble on inside his head without acknowledging it. After the first few days, the Rocket realized that not talking to the voice in his head would drive him insane. The irony was not lost on the boy.

"_Yes, poaching. What a lovely assignment you've landed us."_ Baku said.

The Rocket had followed his superiors command. After leaving Vermilion, he took the round about way to Lavender. The rockets that were pursuing him must have never caught on. Aside from a run in with an onix, the trip had gone as smoothly as could be expected. When he arrived at the small town, he handed the papers the dead Rocket gave him over to his new boss. The administrator glanced at them and immediately assigned the Rocket to the tower group. The Rocket wasn't sure what those papers said but he was happy that he could leave that strangeness behind. Almost.

The Rocket fingered the dubious disk in his civilian clothing. Someone had tried to kill him; someone within Team Rocket. Whatever was happening was tied to that disk. _No one gets away with messing with me._ The Rocket thought, ignoring the exception.

"_So are we going to stare at this tower forever?"_ Baku said.

"No, let's get to work."

* * *

Baku

Midnight

Baku had his doubts about this assignment before all the madness. He wasn't one to balk at the immorality of anything but poaching cubones for their skulls seemed a tad bit like begging for something terrible to happen to you.

He and his partner had originally been assigned to infiltrate the tower as members of the work crew. When they closed the tower, the local administrator switched gears and sent them in with the channelers. This allowed Baku to make numerous quips about fakes hiding with fakes. He didn't know if his trainer appreciated this, nor did he care.

_I wish I'd paid closer attention to him._

The Rocket was crouched down between some tombstones. Baku sensed the channeler pass by. She was searching for them.

After she passed by, Baku spoke telepathically to the Rockets mind. _"Forward and third right. Now!"_

The rocket followed Baku's instruction, keeping his body tow to the ground. After the third right, the Rocket turned and crouched as low into the corner of the tombstones as he could. The foot steps of the channelers were all the Rocket could sense.

_That's where I come in. _Baku thought. He had been using his psychic senses to guide his partner through the maze of grave stones. It kind of reminded him of a videogame consisting of a hungry pizza being chased by five ghosts. Only in this version there wasn't any fruit and there were a lot more than five ghost.

"_Back one now!"_

The Rocket barely avoided being caught by another channeler. The channelers had caught most of the rockets in the first hour of their possession. It had happened fast. Baku had only just sensed the presence of more minds than he could account for when the ghosts attacked. _Real ghosts._ Baku thought. _Who would have guessed?_

Thanks to some quick thinking for his partner, Baku and the Rocket evaded the first assault. By hiding in a crate of cubone… bones. Baku quickly realized that the ghosts were not omniscient because if they were then his team would have ended up like the rest. Baku couldn't tell if the other rockers were dead or simply unconscious. When he left his hiding place to make a break for the exit, they weren't moving. For some reason, the rockets weren't possessed, only the channelers.

_How can they tell the difference?_ Baku thought. _No, I must focus._

"_Round this corner and then…"_

* * *

Lin

1:00 a.m.

Lin's throat was sore. Other then that though…

She was gazing at the ceiling above her. _How long had it been now? Maybe I should do something._

She lifted her arm. _Well that was unfulfilling._ She raised her leg into the air. _That's more like it._

Muffled sounds bombarded her ears. Lin focused. _Humans? Yes, and nearby. Isn't this my lucky day._

Lin moved her eyes towards the direction of the sound. They got closer and closer until a young boy crawled through. He couldn't have been much older than her, not that she was a good judge. He wore the long robes you usually see on TV, worn by fake psychics trying to still an idiot's money. _Oh, who are you kidding? All channelers are female and you don't have long hair._

When the boy saw her he froze, Lin hoped it was out of fear. But then the strangest thing happened the boys face twisted in anger, then he said, "You have got to be kidding me. You? Of all the times and places…"

"_Shh! Do you want us to get caught?"_

Lin heard the voice but did not see the speaker. After a moment she realized that she had heard it in her head. _Ah, a psychic! So that's how he's lasted this long._

"Are you ok?" the boy whispered. "Please, say no."

Lin tested her mouth. "Uhh…yes!" _Whoa! This voice is even creepier in this tower than I thought._ "Who are you?"

"_I she serious?"_ the psychic said.

Lin tried frowning. _Crap. Do I know these people?_ "I'm sorry, I'm bad with faces. Where do I know you from?"

"Try Mt. Moon, or Viridian forest, or any given day."

Lin rummaged through some recent memories. "Wait. You're that same rocket aren't you?"

The Rocket looked shocked. "Uh, yes. Wow, I didn't' honestly think you'd ever get it."

"_Nice, now that we've established her mental capacity is above normal, can we go?"_

"How are your pokemon?" the Rocket said.

Lin knew that the pokemon she had been with had fallen a floor or two below her. "The kadabra was unconscious but the eevee is probably still around."

"_Humph. I bet Aza didn't even sense the ghosts till they were right on top of him. What a moron."_

Lin tried smiling.

"Well, I'd hate to leave you here without silencing you but I'm going down stairs." The Rocket said.

"Not using the stairs you're not," Lin said. "The mother broke the floor leading to them. So unless you can fall a story without harming yourself, I suggest we find another way."

"We?"

"Three heads are better then two," She said. "Besides, don't you want to keep me around just in case?"

"Just in case what?"

"Just in case you get into a battle you can't win."

"Screw you."

"_We don't have time to argue."_

"Ok, fine," The Rocket said. "Can you walk?"

"Maybe," Lin tried pushing her body off the ground. It took a little work but eventually she was standing straight up.

"Get down fool!" the rocket said. "Do you want the channelers to find us?"

"There's none on this floor," Lin said.

"Huh?"

"_She's right."_ The physic said. _"They must have left while we were sidetracked."_

The Rocket got to his feet as proudly as he could. "Ok, now what? Are we going to find some rope?"

"Didn't you guys bring rope in with you?" Lin said.

"Well, yeah but how would you know that?"

"Female intuition."

"_Oh, yeah. I keep forgetting that."_

"The ropes back upstairs though. How are we going to avoid the channelers a second time around?"

"Something tells me that they won't be a problem."

And they weren't as the trio arrived upstairs it became very clear that there was no one there, no one except all the corpses of deceased pokemon and gravestones.

"Where could they all have gone?" The Rocket said. "Did they give up?"

"There's another human in the tower," Lin said.

"Ok, what's up with the psychic powers Lin? How could you possibly know that?"

Lin raise an eyebrow, something she found great pleasure in, and said, "Physic powers or sense of hearing, what ever you want to call it. At least I heard the voice of a pikachu and a boy. I'm just assuming that it wasn't you."

"Could anything else go wrong with this mission?"

Lin laughed in her crackly, sick voice, and then moved through the path of graves. "Try to keep up Rocket."

Lin caught the Rocket's whisper as she left. "She just might be the creepiest thing in this tower."

_You have no idea._ She thought.

"Blood."

Lin and the Rocket froze. A woman with tangled hair and a pale face rose from the ground. "The spirits…" she grounded as she twisted her arms, "They are angry."

"Baku!" the Rocket said.

"_She wasn't there! Something must have been dampening my senses."_

"Are you going to take care of this?" Lin said.

"What's stopping you?"

Lin spread her empty arms. "No pokemon remember."

"Oh, right." The Rocket took his only pokeball off his belt. "Get in there Baku!"

The psychic type emerged form the device and stared down the approaching channeler. "You want me to fight a possessed human?"

"You have a problem with that?" Lin said. "I didn't realize that poachers knew the difference between right and wrong."

"Wait…" the Rocket said. "How did you-"

"Ghastly!" the channeler hissed. As she did, a black fog rolled out of her. It oozed to the floor where it pooled. Then the fog took the barest resemblance to a sphere. It had eyes and teeth though, big teeth.

"Is it wrong that I've always wanted one of these?" the Rocket said.

"Not the time!" Baku said.

"Right, well I've got a few surprises for you, ghost type. Baku, head butt!"

Baku lowered his head and ran towards the ghastly. The ghastly mouth got even larger then a giant tongue emerged. The drowzee ran striate into it. Or, better put, striate though it. Baku would probably be frustrated that his attack did nothing if he didn't suddenly feel so much pain. He hadn't damaged the gassy ball but Baku felt like he was covered in a thin layer of slimy acid.

"Baku?" the Rocket said.

"He's got me paralyzed!" Baku burly managed to get out.

"Well, two can play at the status game. Poison gas."

Baku willed his body to work. Not that he was in a hurry or anything. In fact the ghastly wasn't even moving. It was just watching the drowzee.

_What is he doing? _Baku thought. _Is he toying with me? Or maybe-_ it all clicked into place. "Watch out!" Baku managed to get his head around just in time to see the Rocket crumbled to the floor. Lin stood behind him, laughing that creepy, inhuman laugh.

_Crap! Think fast Baku!_ The drowzee pushed his body. _If I can just get this ghost type poisoned, I might be able to make my escape while they're trying to cure it._

Using his newest trick, Baku created a sickening miasma and sent it towards the ghastly. The ghastly just floated in the same spot. "No, don't tell me…"

The poison cloud passed through the ghost.

"So…not…fair…" Baku said as he turned around. The possessed Lin was looking at him. Dark energy started flowing around her. The girl lifted her hand into the air and the energy started to pour into it, soon forming some kind of ball made of shadows.

"You lose." She growled.

* * *

Aza

2:30 a.m.

As an abra I remained fully conscious of my surroundings s as I slept. As such I was not use to coming to in a strange environment, and most definitely not with a sore head.

I made a few unintelligible sounds that I'm not proud of, then, got up. _What happened again?_

My last conscious memories came back to me. _Oh, right. Wait, where are the others?_

I looked around myself I was surrounded by tombstones. "Not the best morning view."

"You're awake!" Ricochets voice said rather loudly.

I turned around to face the furry normal type. "Oh, you survived did you? I'm surprised."

"Yeah, sarcasm, ha ha," Ricochet said unenthusiastically. "Listen, we might be in more trouble then we thought."

"We will be soon if you keep speaking that loud," I said.

"What? Oh no, we're safe here." Ricochet motioned to a human I hadn't noticed before.

"The small one is correct, here you are safe," The woman was dressed in a bizarre robe. I couldn't tell if she was serious about the get up, or if I had stayed unconscious until Halloween.

"How are- oh, she called you small Ricochet, ha ha- how are we safe? Is this the base? Can they not tag us here?"

"I've set protective wards in this area. The ghosts can not enter." The woman said.

"How can you do that? Wait, how are even understanding us?"

"I am a channeler."

"Oh, well then, no explanations necessary."

"I came here to calm the spirit of the mother."

"Great job on that by the way," I said. "Who's the mother?"

"A marowak who was killed while trying to protect her young." The channeler said. "From what I understand someone tried to get up a poaching operation."

"And how do you know that?" I said "Are channelers psychics as well as magicians?"

The channeler motioned behind me. I turned around to see a boy dressed in women's clothing and a drowzee. Both looked like they were floating in and out of consciousness. It took a while for me to recognize the pair. The channeler robe must have through me off. "Is that…"

"Yep." Ricochet said. "That's them alright."

"So they got attacked by the ghosts?"

"Not exactly," Ricochet said. "Remember, I told you that we were in more trouble than we thought."

"You think? I must say-"

"Please, Aza."

I didn't have a comeback for that. I studied the eevee. He seemed truly worried, almost panicked. I took a deep breath and said, "Ok, Ok. Let's take this seriously. What's wrong?"

"It was Lin."

I really didn't know what to think of that. I imagined the short, overdressed girl karate chopping the Rocket in the back of the head then booting the drowzee into a tombstone. "Are you sure about that?"

"I was barely conscious, but yes." The channeler said. "See, when my ghost was defeated by a boy-"

"Who?" I said.

"Don't worry about him. I'm sure he's not that important." Ricochet said.

"Yes, anyway, while I was coming too, I looked up and saw a strangely dressed… girl? Anyway, she was dragging these two down the stairs."

"So? Lin could be packing some serous muscle underneath that jacket." I said. "Maybe she was dragging them to safety."

"Her eyes were glowing," The woman said.

"That could be an optical illusion brought on by your recent trip to unconsciousness."

"There were other ghastlys around her that seemed to listen to everything she said."

"Lin can have that effect on pokemon."

"The stairs are destroyed."

I checked the stairs. They seemed fine until the middle part which didn't appear to exist. "So when she got to that point she just…"

"Jumped?" Ricochet offered.

"More like floated." The channeler corrected.

"Ok, say that I was to believe Lin was possessed," I said. "How would one stop said possession?"

"Well…" the channeler thought. "If you could get her to walk into this circle, I'm sure the purified energy will expel the ghost."

"Easier said then-"

"I'll go!" Ricochet started to head for the stairs.

"Whoa! Wait!" I said. "We can't do this."

"Well why not?" Ricochet said.

"Don't you remember what Lin said? Normal moves don't work on ghost. They're also good against psychic types." I motioned to Baku. "Look at what they did to him."

"Don't you remember anything Lin taught you?" Ricochet said. "Didn't' she always try to look at things differently? Would she have given up on us?" Ricochet went back to climbing stairs it went pretty well for him until he got to the broken down part. He realized quickly that he was stuck. He gave out a little scream of frustration and hung his head.

"Seriously," I said as I left the circle to join him. "Where would you be with out me?"

When I reached him, I teleported us up to the other floor.

* * *

Ricochet

3:43

I was pretty good at hide 'n go seek when I was at the farm. Of course, this was much trickier. See, we didn't have mazes of tombstones, and the penalty for being caught was being "it," not being possessed. Of course, back on the farm I didn't have a physic telling me where everyone was. It was like the ultimate cheat. I still couldn't believe he was with me. I always thought Aza only looked after himself. I guess I misjudged him.

"We've been searching for hours," I whispered. There were still channellers and ghastlys around, though they all seemed really distracted by something. "Can't you sense Lin yet? What if, by avoiding the channellers we're really avoiding Lin?"

"We've been searching for one hour," Aza said, "And you need to have a little trust in my abilities. We'll find Lin soon enough."

"And then what?"

"You don't have a plan?" Aza said.

I shrugged.

"Of course, I'll come up with something then."

We walked in silence a bit more. Then Aza stopped.

"Oh, you sense her?"

"Yes, she's close," He said.

"Ok, what's the plan?"

Aza told me the plan.

"I don't like that plan," I said.

"Well that's what you get for not coming up with one yourself."

Thanks to the plan, I got to reunited with Lin pretty quickly. When she rounded a corner, I was waiting for her. I'm sure we were both surprised. She couldn't have been expecting me to be waiting for her on the other side of the tombstone. I definitely wasn't expecting her to be hovering in the air, have black eyes, and have a dark aura around her. Ok, maybe I was a little more surprised then she was.

"Err... sup, Lin. Or… uh…ghost?"

"You?" the not-Lin said. The scratchiness of her voice made me jump. Then I remembered that she always sounded like that.

"Yeah! It's me, Ricochet." I said. "How you doing?"

"I will feast on your blood!" she took a few float-y steps over to me.

"Tombstone!" I yelled.

The not-Lin hesitated. Then one of the larger tombstones toppled over right by her. Lin flung herself towards me, dodging to falling stone slab. Just like we planned.

I threw myself at Lin, then yelled "Do it!"

Aza emerged form behind the fallen tombstone and wrapped his arms around all of us. I felt a yanking in the back of my skull.

When I reoriented myself, I saw that the plan hadn't gone completely right. Aza had not gotten us into the safety circle; _He didn't have a lot of time to concentrate. At least we're on the same floor though._ I could even see the channeler. We were off by just a few feet. Then Lin tossed me to the other side of the room and I was suddenly much further then a few feet.

"How dare you?" Lin screeched. "You will all pay for this!" Dark energy started pooling into her hands.

"Over here!" I heard Aza say. He had somehow gotten himself into the circle. "I bet you can't hit me!"

Lin whirled away from me. _"NOW!"_ Aza spoke to my mind.

I bolted towards Lin, who, realizing her mistake, tried to turn back around. Unfortunately, I never was very fast. When I launched myself into the air so I could tackle Lin into the circle, she unleashed her shadow ball. I braced myself for the impact, hoping that it wouldn't knock me backwards. _If I can just break through this, then-_ the ball passed right through me. I didn't even feel a chill.

My body knocked into Lin's gut, flinging her into the circle. As soon as she crossed the line, I saw a dark shadow rip out of her, almost like it got strained out.

"Huh." Aza said. "It appears that ghost moves don't work on normal types as well as visa versa."

"Alright, now," I turned to face the ghost that had turned my trainer into my worst nightmare. "Now it gets interesting."

The shadows pooled together to create- "That's no ghastly." The ghost was far larger, covered in sharp edges and has hands that did not seem to connect to his body.

"No. I'm a haunter." The ghost said. "And you'll regret ever setting foot in my tower."

* * *

Aza

4:15 A.M.

_Well, at least we got our trainer back. _I thought. I glanced over at her unconscious body. _Not like it helped us or anything._

Ricochet was currently involved in a battle with the haunter. It wasn't going anywhere. Neither could hit each other at first. "Ricochet," I said. "You've got to use steel tail. It's the only way!"

Ricochet tried to swing his tail around but it was no use. The hunter was just too agile. And unfortunately, it had a few non-ghost moves of its own. The hunter bit down on eevee's shoulder.

_This is no good. I've got to do something. But what? Psychic types are no good vs. ghosts. Then again I assumed normal types wouldn't be good against ghosts either._

My first trainer's voice came to me. "Everything has a weakness, you must find it. Search it out in your mind."

My father's voice echoed, "Assumptions kill."

"Then let's check my assumptions." I muttered.

_Fact: normal vs. ghost immunity. Ghost vs. normal immunity. Physic vs. ghost equal resistant… no, just because Lin said that physics weren't effective against ghost doesn't mean that they're resistant. Didn't the ghosts hide from you at first? Why would they need a sneak attack?_

"Aza…" I glanced away from haunter's and Ricochet's battle to see Baku. He was regaining consciousness. "Aza… poison gas…"

I resisted the urge to make a joke here, and instead said, "What, what about poison gas?"

Baku was still recovering, but he managed to say. "Didn't work."

_Didn't work? So ghosts' types are immune to poison? No, I can't believe that ghost types are immune and resistant to everything. The only explanation for that immunity would be… poison types!_ I looked back to the haunter. _Ghost type, maybe, but that doesn't mean that he can't have another type. And unlike ghosts, I understand poison very well._

I stepped out of the circle. The hunter looked over to me.

"I thought you might try to be brave." It said "Come to me my minions!"

Ghastlys started oozing form the walls. I'm sure it looked very creepy but I wasn't blinded by assumptions anymore.

"Yes," I said. "That's enough from you now." Then I unleashed my psychic fury. Physic power bashed against the ghosts and they folded like a house of cards.

"Ahh!" the hunter screamed. "We know your weakness too!" he summoned up a shadow ball. "We'll-"

A steel tail crashed into the side of the haunters face. He crumbled, fainted and oozed into the floor.

"Hum!" Ricochet said. "I guess they can't take a hit."

The other ghastlys fled.

"Uh…" Lin's scratchy voice made us turn around. She had regained consciousness along with the Rocket and Baku. "Why do I feel so exhausted? Have I been sleep-walking?"

"Something like that," The Rocket muttered.

Lin turned to him. "Excuse me, but who are you?"

* * *

Ricochet

10:13 A.M.

10:13 A.M. was sleeping in for Lin. After last night's fiasco, Lin had decided not to try and catch a cubone. Even after Mr. Fugi had said it was safe to go back into the tower. I guess some guy saved him and calmed the mother ghost down by fighting it. Don't ask me how that worked. Then just like that, this hero dude vanished. It seemed to bug Lin a bit but I was glad it was over.

"Ok, seriously, the two words sound exactly the same."

"They both come from the same route, psyc-, meaning mind. That doesn't mean that psycho and psychic is the same thing."

I continued to play dumb. "Well then what about psychotic and psychopath."

"Uhg," Lin said. "Are you two still on this? Didn't you learn to get along yet?"

Aza looked over at me and winked. "You're a furry menace that wouldn't survive a day in the real world."

"And you're a stuck up, know-it-all." I said, smiling back.

"You know something." Lin said. "Sometimes I think you two do this just to annoy me."

* * *

**Next time on 24:**

**Team Lin did it in 22 hours. Suck it Jake Bower.**


	12. I Wish

**Author's note:**

**I'm back! The sad thing was that I had this written out for months.**

* * *

**I Wish**

Fainting sucks. Seriously, you may never have to go through the experience in your life, but, for us battling pokemon, it's a continuous source of anxiety. I am going through the process of losing consciousness at this very moment, and let me tell you, it doesn't get any easier.

My mind froze; becoming a simple observer of my body's shut down. I noticed that the noise of the crowed became a monotone hum. My skin felt very sensitive, almost like I could feel each individual strand of fur growing. My ears went numb and my nose started tingling. Then the whole world started getting lighter, beginning at the middle of my vision and then expending outward. It was like I was slowly being erased.

In those last moments my rational mind returned. _I wish I had just a little more time. I wish I could get up just once more. I wish that I had that strength. I wish…_

* * *

"I wish all humans were like this." I said.

"_Ricochet,"_ Aza pulsed to me. _"You shouldn't talk with your mouthful."_

I glanced over at the kadabra. He was using his psychic powers to lift the food into his mouth. I thought that maybe he should be eating with that spoon he's always carrying around, but then I thought that would look bizarre. Then I started thinking about why I would think that Aza eating with a spoon was odd. After a bit I realized that thinking was stopping me from eating, and considered to stop thinking so I could consume this glorious meal, so I never got around to deciding on anything, because I started eating again.

We were in a house in Lavender. We hadn't had a chance to leave yet. It's all for the better though. A man called Mr. Fuji invited us to his house for a real dinner and I have to say that it maybe the best thing that's ever happened to me since I left the farm. The food was spectacular; I hadn't had anything this great since my days back on the eevee farm. Well, not that anything I have eaten since Lin became my trainer could actually be called food.

"Part poison. Do you know how much that could change Agatha's standing in the Elite Four?" the fantastic Mr. Fuji said.

This wonderful Fuji guy looked funny for a human. Normally all humans look the same. The one or two exceptions usually had to do with extreme hair styles. Lin was pretty easy to pick out of a crowed, not just because people tend to avoid walking within a four foot radius of her, but because she had a ridiculous amount of midnight black hair all tangled into one large mass at the top of her head. It all use to be held down by a beanie but now several rubber bands kept it in check. All in all, the cancerous looking mass at the top of her head was a dead give away.

Mr. Fuji, a great host by the way, was another good example of a recognizable human. He had no hair. The man was short and wrinkled and smelled funny and had no hair. I couldn't even imagine me not having hair because I was too busy eating. I paused between swallowing and taking another bite to activate my imagination. I shuddered at the image.

"_You're thinking about being bald again, aren't you?"_ Aza pulsed.

I responded by mumbling something into my food dish.

"Agatha will be fine," Lin said, "She was a good trainer before she discovered ghost types."

"A good trainer, yes, but good trainers don't last in the elite four. Incredible training ability is what is required," Mr. Fuji countered.

"Fuchsia is one of the best gyms in Kanto and its poison typed," Lin argued. "Koga can even hold his own against the Elite Four. Even when her ghost type's weaknesses are discovered, she could adapt her team to cover it."

"But she won't my dear," Mr. Fuji said. "She will keep the same pokemon on her team that she always has had and that will cost her a place in the elite four."

"What's wrong with the pokemon she has?" Lin said. "I said adapt, not replace. With a little careful planning, I bet she could teach her pokemon to handle ground and psychic types."

"You're putting too much stock in certain pokemon's abilities," Mr. Fuji sighed. "Take your eevee for example."

My head snapped up at Mr. Fuji saying the name of my species. _This had better be good old man._

"No one would dream of bringing an eevee to a real fight for three reasons," The smelly human said. "One, they aren't that powerful. They don't have extraordinary talents in any one area, is what I mean."

"My eevees got a great defense." Lin said.

"Yeah," I said, "What about that!"

"But he doesn't have a higher defense than any given rock type. Even a few water types will have a higher defense then him. Second, eevees don't have any extraordinary abilities. As I'm sure you know, even a weaker pokemon can be crucial to a team if it has the right ability. I believe your eevees ability makes it easier to run away from pokemon."

"Hey!" I said, "He makes that sound as if it's not useful!"

"And third, eevees don't learn any spectacular moves. All are pretty weak when compared to moves like flamethrower and ice beam. The most powerful move an eevee learns is bite."

Lin flinched at that last statement. "He might be able to learn more by inheriting them through his parents or TMs. Ricochet still has a move I don't know about yet. I'm sure that with time and a few more members on our team, we can find a role where Ricochet will be crucial."

"If everything's been great for you, then why are you on your last legs, financially speaking?" Mr. Fuji said.

"Huh?" I said.

"He's speaking about matters of the heart," Aza said, having now finished his meal.

"Oh, so financial means money stuff? So he's saying that nobody loves Lin?"

"Very good Ricochet," Aza said. "You picked up on that quickly." He sounded a little sarcastic when he said that but I couldn't figure out why.

I hadn't thought about it in a while but as I thought about it, I hadn't seen Lin steal anyone's money for a while. I hadn't even seen Lin's metal heart in a while.

"This must be why he's feeding us all," Aza said. "He must have learned about her eating habits."

"We eat just fine," I said. "Yes, the food is really mushy paste, but at least I'm filled."

"Sure we eat just fine," Aza said. "If by 'we' you mean you and I. Think, when was the last time you saw Lin eat?"

I normally have a great memory for food, but for some reason I couldn't place the last time Lin ate.

"I don't know," I finally said. "I think I saw her pop a few berries in her mouth yesterday… or the day before."

"Exactly," Aza said. "Lin must see that her pokemon are her number one priority so she makes sure she can pay for us before she buys anything for herself. We are the primary source of income."

"But she's not eating?" I said. Aza didn't respond. Something about the idea of Lin starving herself made me uncomfortable.

"There are not that many trainers this far east." Lin said. "We'll be fine once we get to Fuchsia."

Mr. Fuji sighed. "You aren't even going to stop at Saffron first?"

"Maybe I'll work my way up cycling road afterwards." Lin said.

"You don't follow the norms do you?"

"I make it a point not to."

"Well maybe this will interest you." Mr. Fuji said. "You're going to need some money if you want to keep going out of your way. I have a way you can do just that."

"I hope its testing pillows," I said.

"More probable, it's spooning out soap for the poor," Aza said.

"Is it a battle?" Lin said.

"No, it's a dishwashing job," Mr. Fuji said.

"Oh," Lin, Aza and I said.

"The SS Anne is on its way here for a pit stop before it returns to port in Vermilion. I guess they had some kind of food poisoning in the crew's kitchen so now they have to do some emergency rehiring. I'm friends with the dishwasher on board and he told me to look out for anyone who could help him. I'm recommending you."

"Well…" Lin shifted in her chair. "I guess it wouldn't hurt delaying a bit. Besides, L.T. Surge is in Vermilion anyway."

"It's a practical job too," Mr. Fuji said. "Who knows, if you work hard and stick with it, you could end up running the ship."

"That would make it difficult for me to become champion," Lin said.

"Just think about it," Mr. Fuji said. "Back in my day we just stuck to real jobs, none of this leaving home on adventures and malarkey. None of us would even dare to try and train a psychic type."

"I don't blame them," I said, "especially if they're all like you, Aza."

"I think he's referring to the rumor that you have to be psychic in order to train a psychic pokemon," Aza said.

"Is that true?" I said.

"I guess we'll find out."

"Thank you for everything," Lin said, "I accept your offer. When will the ship be here?"

"Tomorrow night, but they won't start loading the new crew and supplies until the next morning. Meet me at 6:00 A.M. by the docks south of town and I'll get you set up.

* * *

"_What an eventful day we had yesterday."_ Aza pulsed as our team made its way to the docks south of Lavender.

"You said it," I said. "I don't think I'll ever look at oddishes the same way again."

"There's Mr. Fuji over there." Lin said.

It was early morning of the first day on the job. I was excited. Not so much because of the work we'd have to do, but because I'd never seen an ocean before. Both Lin and Aza had. They kept talking about how inspiring it was. I didn't care so much about being inspired, I just wanted to talk with them about being inspired.

Mr. Fuji was talking to a man in a white and blue uniform. All around them there were other humans in white and blue uniforms carrying large boxes onto wood over water that lead to some large floating thing.

_That must be the ocean._ "Wow it's huge!"

"_Yes, it's quite large isn't it? Awe inspiring." _Aza pulsed.

"Yeah, and so sturdy," I said.

"_What do you mean?"_ Aza pulsed.

"Well no amount of splashing is going to knock that thing over."

"_No you fool, that's the ship."_

"Then where's the ocean?"

"_The ship is floating in it."_

I laughed. "You can't fool me. That's just a lot of water."

"_That's what an ocean is."_

"A lot of water? That seriously inspires you? Gezz, I haven't been this let down sense I learned a forest was just a bunch of trees."

"Ah, Lin. Let me introduce you to your boss." It was Mr. Fuji waving us over to him. The human he was with looked like he had short brown hair underneath his weird white hat. He was older, but not Fuji old. He was large though, and built like a brick house.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Lin," Lin said.

"Hum… I guess you'll have to do." The man in white handed Lin a bundle of what looked like cloth. "Go below deck, second floor down, and get yourself changed in room five C. then come meet me for your first shift at 10:00 A.M. sharp in the kitchens."

"Uhm, yes sir," Lin said. She was about to march off when the man in white spoke again.

"Call me Mr. Washer," He said.

"_Oh please tell me that's his real name."_ Aza pulsed. _"This could be so much fun."_

* * *

Lin walked us down the hallway, too, early. I'm sure it's because she wanted to make sure she was on time. However, a part of me thought it was because she didn't want anyone to see her in her new uniform.

That's what Mr. Washer's bundle had been. Lin's uniform looked a little like his except it was mostly dark blue with a little white around the stitching and boarders. The most shocking features were the sleeves. They went down to Lin's elbows but no further. For the first time ever I could see Lin's forearms. They were very white in color. So white in fact that color may be a bad word of it. Another fun feature was the skirt. Or at least it would have been a skirt on anyone other than Lin. For her it was a dress going all the way down to her feet. Lin always wore the same get up, the ugly jacket, the scarf, the combat boots and snow pants, so for me this was a very fun experience. Of course, Lin rebelled any way she could. She still kept her scarf and the boots since the uniform didn't provide her with any substitutes.

"I think this is it." Lin said, coming to a stop in front of some large double doors. She took a deep breath then pushed them open to find… nothing.

"_Why does our lives get anticlimactic in all the wrong places,"_ Aza pulsed.

The kitchen itself was sterile and silver. Some large spoons were handing around and I'm pretty sure the large door in the back was the food storage area. I was slightly offended that this kitchen was larger than the one I used to sneak into at the farm. "There can't be this many people on the boat. This is just too big." I said.

"_No, it just means humans eat a lot." _Aza pulsed. _"You just haven't noticed because Lin doesn't eat anything."_

"I do too," Lin mumbled.

For the first time Lin's jacket wasn't blocking my view so I could get a better look. "He's right. Underneath all those stinky winter cloths, you're just skin and bones. You're just all fluff."

"_Ah, the jokes I could make,"_ Aza pulsed, _"But in all seriousness Lin, you might want to consider-"_

BAM!

The double doors behind us burst open. Mr. Washer entered the kitchen. He spotted us and nodded. "You're early, good. If you're not ten minutes early your ten minutes late." He marched over to another section of the kitchen and we followed.

The dish watching room was like the kitchens with one small difference, nobody cared about this place. Well, that's not fair. Really the people in charge didn't expect people to ever go back here so they didn't make it look as sterile. All of us fit in just fine but that's not saying much considering that I could fit on a plate, Aza was a disembodied mind in an apricot sized ball and Lin's growth must have been stunted from malnutrition. Two big tubs took up most of the space and there was a small hole in the wall to the left of them.

"Let me explain how this will work." Mr. Washer said. "See this hole in the wall? Soon it will be filled with dishes. Now where's your kadabra?"

Lin reached down for her solo pokeball. "How-"

"Mr. Fuji." Mr. Washer said.

Lin called out Aza, who immediately pulsed to Lin and me, _"If he thinks I'm doing manual labor, he's-"_

"What's your name kadabra?" Mr. Washer said. "And don't be shy. I've been around long enough to spot a strong psychic type when I see one."

I couldn't tell if Aza was annoyed at Mr. Washer's bluntness or because he was interrupted. "Aza. You must have a good eye if you can determine my abilities from a twenty second observation. What did you do before you were a dish washer?"

"I'll tell you latter, on one condition," Mr. Washer said. He pointed to his head. "You stay out of here."

"Fair enough," Aza said, "What would you have me do?"

"I hope you can lift things with your mind."

"Naturally."

"Good. You've got the job of moving the dishes form this hole to the washtub on the left. You'll have to put them in gently enough so that they don't break on the ones you've already put in there. A little latter will have you move the clean dishes to make room for more, that is if you can handle two jobs at a time?"

"Rudimentarily." Aza said.

Our boss nodded. "As for you Lin, I want you at my right. You'll be drying the dishes for me, as soon as you're done rinsing them. I'll handle the hot water washing."

"Yeah," I said. "Sounds like hard work, but it seems you guys have it covered. Lin, asked him where I can take my nap."

The dishwasher turned down to face me.

"Oh. You're not translating for him are you Aza?" I said.

"_I wouldn't dream of doing something so offensive as _that_ to a man we've barely met."_ Aza pulsed.

"As for you…" the washer said. "Make yourself scarce." Mr. Washer grimaced and turned away.

"Hey!"

"_What's the matter? A few seconds ago you didn't want a job."_

"That doesn't mean I don't want to be considered for one!"

"Are you sure Ricochet can't help out in some way?" Lin said.

"Kid, another thing I've learned over the years is that eevees make good companions but that's about it."

"Ouch," I said.

"_I'm sensing some unresolved anger issues with your species." _Aza said. _"It's my recommendation to you to back off a bit."_

"No kidding," I said. I backed myself into a corner by the towels which looked suspiciously brown and got ready for a boring day. Soon the hole in the wall started making weird sounds and dishes started to appear. Aza, Lin and Mr. I-hate-eevees began their work. It started a little awkwardly at first, but after a short time Aza and Lin got into the movements of it.

"_I'm I the only one who thinks this man use to be a trainer?"_ Aza pulsed.

I caught Lin giving a slight nod before saying, "That's some training technique you've got Aza doing sir."

"What do you mean?" he said.

"I'm just saying that it's pretty difficult to find an activity that can challenge a kadabras precision and multitasking ability," Lin said. "Getting him to handle delicate items at the same time as working on both sides of the room is a great way to train. You even appealed to Aza's since of pride to change a job he was apathetic towards into a challenge he could enjoy."

"I had a hard time following that." I said. "But from what I understood it sounded like Aza just got owned."

A stack of towels from the shelf above me mysteriously toppled over and I was buried.

"Yeah, I use to be a trainer kid. That was a long time ago." Mr. Washer said, never missing a beat form his dish washing rhythm. "Life changes, and now I do this for a living."

"Still, you must have been pretty good," Lin said. "You showed some great creativity just now."

"It's not just about skill of the trainer kid. Its how much you're willing to sacrifice."

"Oh, I know that," Lin said, while attempting to dry several pieces of silverware at once. "Long days and lots of time are required to be champ. Ha! This is why I'm running low on money too. It will all be worth it in the end."

Mr. Washer shook his head. "I don't think you see what I'm getting at kid. I'm talking about different kinds of sacrifices. Tell me, what's the dream you wish for above all others?"

"To be champion!" Lin said without hesitation. "It's been my wish since I was a little girl."

"Are you willing to dump the eevee for your wish?"

I poked my head out of my nest of towels. "Excuse me? Lin, bite him for me, will you?"

"I'm sure I will do just fine," Lin said. "There's a place for everyone on my team."

"You don't get it kid." Mr. Washer said. "You think that just because you want it means you've got a shot. The truth is wishing doesn't get you anywhere. No matter how hard you're team wishes to be champs, there are simply better pokemon out there that yours can't overcome. You've got to be willing to trade out your pokemon for ones you think will bring you to the top. You can't let friendship and sentimentality get in your way. That's the kind of sacrifice I'm talking about."

I wasn't quite sure how to take that. _No. That's not what Arazul taught me._ I thought back to my time on the farm. Arazul had always told us that we were special, even the less likeable eevees like Feral and Zip. But other words came back to haunt me. As I thought about it, Arazul was the only one who told me eevees were special.

"Now I wish to be champion even more," Lin said, "Because now I wish to prove you wrong."

Mr. Washer turned to Lin with what was either surprise or anger. Then he laughed. "You know what Lin; I'm beginning to think that if anyone can, it would be you."

* * *

"_Wow."_ Aza said from outside his pokeball. _"I don't think I've had that kind of exercise in a while. I'm gong to feel that in the morning."_

"My arms are sore." Lin said.

"So is my butt," said I.

"_So where shall we be going,"_ Aza said.

We must have been getting into the evening. It turned out that the breakfast shift and the lunch shift are one and the same. Now we had a few hours break before we had to report back for dinner.

"We could go back to our room," Lin said. "I've got some thoughts I need to write down."

"Yes, that way I can officially die of boredom," I said. "Geez, now I know why sailors love the sea so much. It's a lot better then being trapped inside of the boat."

"_Ship."_ Aza corrected.

"Whatever," I said. "Can we please go top side?"

"Sure." Lin said. "I'm sure we can find a few trainers up there for you. That should get your blood flowing a bit."

"_Be careful what you wish for,"_ Aza pulse to me.

I wasn't too upset about it. _Maybe if I faint this day will end faster._

After some maneuvering around the endless hallways, I finally saw a bright light. We'd made it to the top of the ship.

"Now," Lin said. "Let's see-"

We looked up just in time to see a huge pokemon cross the ship. I don't know what it was, but it was green and black and had a menacing look to it. It must have been some kind of flying type but I didn't see any wings. Instead it had some sort of disk above it that made a chopping sound.

"What kind of pokemon is that?" I asked.

"_That's not a pokemon, moron?"_ Aza said. _"It's a helicopter; a machine. Honestly Ricochet. A propeller on a pokemon? That's just ridiculous."_

"I think it's landing on the boat!" Lin said.

"_Ship,"_ Aza corrected.

"Whatever," Lin said. She bent down and scoped me up into her arms. Then we took off towards the landing helicopter.

When we reached the back of the ship there was already a large crowed. At first I couldn't understand them. I caught bit's and pieces, like 'no way', 'believe it', 'lightning American', and 'Agrahhh'. Though, to be fair, that last one may have been a jumbled mix of sounds and not a real word.

"What's an American?" I said.

"_Someone from America?"_ Guessed Aza. _"Sounds made up to me."_

"It can't be!" Lin said. She then dove into the crowed. Using her small shape, Lin managed to worm her may through the maze of people to reach the center of everyone's attention.

I just saw a human at first. Then I realized that this was by far the largest human I'd ever seen. He was at least three times the size of Lin. His hair was golden, short and spiky. Oh, and he was buff, like machoke size buff.

"It's Lt. Surge!" Lin said. I could tell by her tone that this was someone important. I scanned my memory to see if she's mentioned him before.

"Wait," I said. "You mean the gym leader of Vermilion, Lt. Surge?"

"_You seem to know this man very well,"_ Aza said.

"Of course," Lin said. "He's the lightning American."

"There it is again, what's an Amer- wait, lightning as in lightning pokemon? How do you know what type of gym he runs when you didn't know what type of gym Brock or Misty ran?"

"Because Lt. Surge is famous!" Lin said. "He and Koga are probably the best known gyms in Kanto. See, Lt. Surge was a lieutenant in the rebellion."

"That- what now?" I said.

"A While ago, the people of Johto rebelled against our authority. It didn't last long though. Lt. Surge kicked their butts with his lightning attacks."

"_Well that's quite the one sided view of events, but yes, now I remember hearing something about this man." _Aza pulsed.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Lt. Surge's voice was as loud as he was big. "I hope you don't mind if I make a pit stop!"

The crowd laughed.

"He must be here to smooth over the food poisoning incident," Lin said.

"_Doesn't surprise me,"_ Aza said. _"This ship represents his city just as much as he does. He can't have a mistake tarnishing his image."_

"Now let me be clear, I'm here to relax a bit before pulling into port so if you see me playing shuffle board don't panic." Lt. Surge certainly knew how to get a crowd going. People were either cheering or trying to get people to quite down so they could laugh. "We're about two days from the great Vermilion, so let's just kick back with the time we have. I mean it now, I just want to relax."

This got the crowed going for some reason. They all started chanting 'Surge'.

"Ok," I said. "Does this guy have some weird control over people or something?" Then I noticed Lin was chanting with the rest of them. "Lin!"

"Ok, ok, I may participate in a battle or two," Lt. Surge said. At this the crowd and Lin cheered even louder. "But I want them to be flashy. None of this weakling junk I've been running into lately. I mean seriously, I want it big, am I alone here?" The crowd, many humans strong, all said 'No'. "Then don't bring any of this weak sauce to me!"

Lt. Surge was pointing in our direction.

"Please tell me we're standing by a magikarp." I said.

"As much as I would love to turn that eevee there into a static cling experiment, I'm actually looking for a challenge!" Lt. Surge continued.

I felt Lin's arms tighten around me. I also noticed she was no longer cheering.

Then as quickly as our time in the spot light came, it left, "See this woman over here?" Lt. Surge pointed to a small woman to his side. And by small I mean only twice as tall as Lin. She was in uniform and had short-

"Blue hair?" I said. "Is that even possible."

"_Trust me,"_ Aza said. _"In our world that's completely possible."_

Lt. Surge continued. "This is Captain Carol Ish. If any of you want to go toe to toe with me then you're going to have to clear it with her first. Now let's all relax and have a wonderful evening!"

The crowed dissipated. Lt. Surge and Ct. Carol vanish below deck. Everywhere though the mood had changed. Lt Surge said he wanted a relaxed time, but now everyone seemed more energized; everyone except Lin.

She put me back on the ground. I was able to get a good look at her face. She wasn't angry like I expected. She was… I really didn't know what word it was. I understand the feeling though. I could feel it tugging at the corner of my mind.

"_Well,"_ Aza said. _"How are we going to beat that jarhead? I hope we get to take down that blue haired freak first."_

The look on Lin's face vanished. "Yeah." She said. Her eyes coming back into focus. "I think Surge has been in retirement too long. Let's kick his butt."

"Err… I don't want to be the rational one here, but don't we have to be back at work in a few hours?" I said. "When are we going to find the time to impress Carol?"

"Right now!" Lin said before bolting below deck.

* * *

We didn't go directly to Carol's room like I feared. Instead Lin marched us to our room to study.

"Electricity." Lin said. "The pokemon are sweepers. They hit hard and fast."

"Faster than me?" Aza said. We were all in a circle with one of Lin's books in front of us.

"Faster, probably, but you'll be able to hit harder." Lin said.

"Hitting harder doesn't matter if I'm unconscious before I can move." Aza said.

"That's ok." Lin said then pointed to me. "That's why we've got Ricochet. He'll make this possible."

"Sweet!" I said. "What do I get to do?"

"You'll tackle the Lt. first, that will soften them up for Aza to survive the attack and hopefully knock his pokemon out in one blow."

"Wait, that sounds like I'm… something you… got ride… to…"

"I believe the word you're looking for is pawn." Aza said.

"Lin, I know that you've been making it a point to say that every pokemon has a part to play." I said. "But have you ever thought that we may not want to fill it?"

"It can work Ricochet." Lin said. "Besides, your quick attack is going to be critical for this plan to work."

"Yeah," Aza said. "You-"

"Ok, I don't need you to give it the negative spin," I said. "Fine, are we done yet?"

"Not quite." Lin said. "Now Lt. Surge shouldn't have anything that's super effective against us but we don't have anything that's super effective against him either. Lt. Surge may even have more pokemon than us. One clear advantage we have over him is the fact that electric moves are unreliable."

"Huh?" I said. "Do they not show up when they're suppose to?"

"No, I'm talking about accuracy." Lin said. "The two main lightning attacks are thunder shock and thunder. Thunder shock is accurate but weak. Thunder is massively powerful but inaccurate. Lt. Surge will most likely have thunder. As long as we take into account that luck is on our side-"

"Always a safe assumption for us," I said.

"Then we should be able to take down his pokemon before he knows where to aim."

"Fantastic." Aza said. "Now let's find Ct. Carol."

Knock! Knock! Knock! Someone was at our door.

"No, it couldn't be," I said.

"It would be highly improbable," Aza said.

"Well," Lin said. "This could be a sign." She opened the door to the hallway. There were two figures standing there. One was a scary looking human wearing a long tank-top, shorts and a straw hat. Standing next to him was a pokemon with four hooves and large brown sticks coming out of his head. I would latter know that this pokemon was called stantler, though this is the only one I ever saw wearing a pink top hat.

"Sorry, wrong room." The boy said. Then both he and his pokemon marched off."

"Well, it would have been creepy if it had been her," I said.

"I would have started doubting what I knew about causality," Said Aza.

"Why did that stantler have a pink hat?" Lin said.

"Excuse me, Ms. Ota, I believe."

Our team leaned out of the door and looked to the right. At the other end of the hallway was Ct. Carol. She was pretty unmistakable, you know, with the clue hair and everything.

Lin stepped out into the hallway and waited for Carol to reach her. When she did, Lin said, "Nice to meet you Ct. Carol. I was just on my way to see you. I'm Lin Ka Ota, but it seems you've already figured that out."

Now that Carol was closer to us I could see a few more identifying features. This human had some type of metal hanging from her clothing. I assumed they were name badges but not like any I'd ever seen. Upon closer inspection I realized that her short hair was only blue to the bottom where it looked a little brown.

"Is her hair changing color?" I whispered.

"_No."_ Aza pulsed. _"She must have dyed it."_

"She killed her hair?" I whispered.

"_I'm not getting into this with you right now."_ Aza said.

"Yes, I looked you up in the police files." Carol said. "You've got quite a record there. Usually that's a bad thing, but with you… well you seem to be an exception. In fact you seem to be an exceptional person in many regards."

"I wonder if she's talking about that night in Viridian forest." I said. "Or the incident in Mt. Moon?"

"_What about that onix in rock tunnel or the Lavender tower?"_ Aza pulsed.

"Maybe she was impressed that we caught that thieving abra," I said.

"Of course, this little guy is what caught my eye." Carol said. She bent down and yanked me up into the air. I was about to show this human that you don't surprise a vicious eevee when Carol started scratching me behind the ears.

"Oh, wow," I said. "I haven't had a good ear scratching in a while."

"What a good thick coat," Carol said. Her face was beaming now. I mean before she was stern and disciplined, but now she looked genuinely happy. I just have that effect on most people.

"Where did you get him?" Carol said.

"The Celadon eevee farm, though I received him from Professor Oak." Lin said. "Are you a fan of eevees, ma'am?"

"Yes, they're my favorite pokemon."

"Ha! Hear that Aza?" I said.

"_Wait for it…" _Aza pulsed.

"Useless in battle of course," said Carol. I might have bit her, but she was scratching me behind the ears so I decided to let it slide.

"_Sell out,"_ Aza pulsed.

"In fact," Carol said. "I got my eevee at that same farm. It's the best one in all of kanto after all."

"_You know, I just realized that the Celadon farm is the only eevee farm anyone seems to know about,"_ Aza pulsed.

"Hey, if you have an eevee," Lin said. "Then let's have a one on one battle! Your eevee vs. mine!"

Carol chucked. "Under normal circumstances I would applaud your use of subtlety before refusing you. However, I did come down here for this reason." Carol put me down then looked Lin in the eye. "Your file says that you're special, but let's just see how good you really are. Let's go top side."

A few moments latter and we were on the front deck of the SS Anne. When we were at the back of the ship, everyone was partying but now that I was at the front of the ship I could see that it was meant for business. The entire area was cleared off and the floor was harder. This place was meant for battle.

Ct. Ish walked to the opposite end of the deck or starboard side, and we walked to whatever the opposite of starboard is side. I was a little surprised to see people gathering. They seemed to be watching us. I was a little unused to people watching me battle. In fact the only time I remember fighting in a crowed was the Cerulean city gym.

"Alright, Ricochet," Lin said. "Let's show them what we got." Then to Ct. Ish she said, "Ok, let's do this, eevee to eevee."

Ct. Ish smiled. "Oh, I think there's a little confusion here." She stretched out her hand and showed us a pokeball. "You see, I said I received an eevee, not that I have one." She pressed the release button on the pokeball and red light arched out onto the battlefield.

The creature that emerged was no eevee, I can tell you that much. It was much too long and far too sleek looking. The tail was all wrong too; it was blue, way too long and had some kind of fin at the end. Really, it looked like a fish. The weird frilly thing on the side of its head didn't help.

"Wait," I said. "If I'm not fighting an eevee, what am I fighting?"

"The name's Venus, eevee." A feminine voice called out. I didn't know how I knew that she was a she. Usually I have to make wild guesses about the gender of another pokemon. With Venus however, I felt as if I had meet her somewhere.

"You seem… familiar," I said. "What are you?"

"I'm a vaporeon." She said.

"Oh!" Lin said. She sounded slightly embarrassed. "Of course you would have evolved your eevee."

_Evolved eevee?_ Suddenly I understood why I understood this new pokemon so well. "Hold on, I turn into that?"

"Address me if I'm present, eevee!" Venus snapped at me.

"Yes ma'am!" I striated up a bit. _Crap! I can't believe I just took an order form an enemy._

"Now, what's your name?" Venuses question seemed more like an order.

"Ricochet, ma'am."

"Is everything alright?" Ct. Ish said.

"Everything's ok," said Lin. "I think this is the first time Ricochet's met an eeveelution." Then Lin spoke to me. "That's a vaporeon. An eevee turns into a vaporeon when it's exposed to a water stone. Like the name implies, she's a water type."

"I hope you're ready for this," Ct. Ish said. "Venus here was specifically breed to become a vaporeon and she's trained with the Navy's best."

"_What kind of a name is Venus?"_ Aza pulsed.

"I think it's a Greek god," Lin said.

"What's a Greek?" I whispered.

"I don't know," Lin said, "someone from Greece?"

"_Why does everyone keep making up countries?"_ Aza pulsed.

"Let's begin!" Ct. Ish said. "Venus, surf!"

"Quick attack!" Lin said.

I didn't know what surf was, but at least I got the philological advantage. My soopped up tackle attack hit Venus and gave Lin time to think up my strategy for this fight. However, this didn't happen before I learned what surf was. The Vaporeon blasted a jet of water towards the floor and pushed her way towards me. It almost looked like she was riding a wave. When she got closer, Venus twisted her body and threw her momentum against me.

"That's a powerful water type attack Ricochet!" Lin shouted. Then before I could respond with a sarcastic remark, she said, "I'm already working on something. Keep at her!"

I got to my feet and quickly attacked the water type. For my troubles, I earned another mega fin slap from Venus.

"Uhg," I said. "Lin, this one packs a bit more punch than I'm use to."

"Alright, Ricochet. Get ready to act immediately to what I say." Lin said.

I would have rather used quick attack again, but I obeyed. Ct. Ish and Venus hesitated.

"That eevee, Ricochet was it? He's got a great defense." Ct. Ish said. "Do it Venus!"

The water type jetted over to me. I obeyed Lin's command, stand still. When the order came, it was for me to dodge left. I had time enough to respond, but even as I was dodging I could tell that I wasn't going to make it. The vaporeon's tail flicked me away. I skidded across the wet wood floor until I bumped against a bucket.

"Kick it over!" Came Lin's voice.

I struggled to get to my feet then kicked over the bucket. A mountain of dirt fell on and around me. I glanced up the see a sign that read 'In case of fire.' _Well this is convenient._ I didn't need Lin's command to know what to do next. I flung the dirt into Venuses eyes.

"Urg!" she said. "I hate that move!"

"Quick attack!" Lin said.

Before Venus had time to blink, I gave her some paw to the face. My momentum carried me to her other side, away form the dirt mound. Then I heard clapping.

"Very impressive." It was Ct. Ish. "Yes, you do have potential. The reports were not lying."

"Ha! Just wait until you see what else we can do," Lin said. "Ricochet and I are about to take you down!"

"No," Ct. Ish said in a soft chuckle. "You can't beat me with your eevee. But you impressed me. That's what I was looking for."

"What do you mean we can't win?" Lin said. "I've got you right where I want you."

"Most definitely." Ct. Carol agreed. "The deck arena was a limitation for both of us at first. You couldn't kick up anything to perform a sand attack and I couldn't perform some of my techniques because they would disrupt the paying customers on board. Not only did you realize this but you found a creative way to eliminate your limits. Not only that but you've positioned Ricochet very well. If Venus turns her back on him to wash away that dirt then it would leave her exposed for some ace in the whole type attack. If she faces you, she'll get sand blasted again. Yes, you've done very nicely."

"Err…you got all that, huh?" Lin said.

"Wow." I said. "I didn't realize Lin put that much thought into a fight."

"You've got a great trainer there," Venus said. "You though, need to shape up."

Ct. Carol continued saying, "If your eevee had evolved I might have actually lost, unfortunately for you, I can end this right now. Hidden attack!"

Venus's frills on the side of her head stretched out like a spiting monster in a great horror film. Instead of spitting out poison, Venus sent yellowish energy my way. I only had enough time to register that this was an electric attack when a massive seizure ripped its way through my body and tossed me to the floor.

"Hidden power?" Lin said. "I can't believe you have that. I can't believe you have it in electric type!"

"I told you that Venus here was breed to be a Vaporeon." Ct. Ish said. "Besides, I've got to have some sort of electric theme if I'm working for Lt. Surge."

"Really sorry about that Ricochet." Venus said to me. "If only you were evolved you might have been strong enough to handle that."

"I…" I worked to get to my feet. "I'm not done yet."

"Ricochet…" Lin said.

"You're still conscious?" Venus asked. "Maybe you do have potential."

"So not only is his defense extremely great for an eevee, he also has a good special defense and an impressive amount of hit points." Ct. Ish said. To my surprise, Ct. Ish walked right up to me and hoisted my soggy tail into the air. "You would make a great vaporeon."

_Me? A vaporeon?_ I glanced down at Venus. _But I don't know how to become that. I don't know anything about evolution._

Luckily Lin came to my rescue. She plucked me form Ct. Ish's arms and said, "Well that's a ways off. I don't think I can afford an evolution stone right now."

"What if you didn't have to buy one?" Ct. Ish said. "What if I just offered you one?" The captain reached into a pocket and pulled out a small blue stone. Now let me tell you something. As a one foot high creature, I can tell you a lot about stones. They're constantly in my way when I'm trying to keep up with Lin and they're uncomfortable to walk on. This blue stone was way different than anything I've encountered before. It was still pretty far away but I swear I could feel some sort of energy pulse through me. It felt good, but to tell you the truth, it kind of scared me.

"You would just give me an expensive stone? But why?" Lin said.

"Lin," Ct. Ish said. "You've shown people time and time again that you're talented and resourceful. Your intelligence could serve a much bigger purposes than what you're currently aiming for. I'll give you this stone if you join Lt. Surge and me in the military."

Lin was silent. I was silent. The captain and Venus were silent. Aza was not silent.

"_Sweet."_ He pulsed._ "All though I think the evolution would only make Ricochet more annoying, I suppose its better fighting besides sushi."_

"Who's that?" Venus said.

"Just some crazy pokemon." I said. "You really think I'd make a good vaporeon? I mean a soldier?"

"Vaporeons are a defensive pokemon." Venus said. "We can take a lot of punishment before we ever give out. And as for the soldier, you'll need to work on it but I believe in you."

"Well?" Ct. Ish said. "Do you really need more time to think about this?"

"No." Lin said.

"Well, let me be the first to-" Ct. Ish began.

"No, thank you, I mean." Lin interrupted. "I'm sorry ma'am but I cannot accept your offer."

"Lin, listen to me. You have amazing potential. One day you could even become a high officer in the military," said Ct. Ish. "You will have a steady paying job. You'll get to see the world. Think of all the adventure the military can give you."

"But I wouldn't become champion," Lin said. "I'm sorry, but becoming the best- the champion- is the deepest wish in my heart."

"Then become the champion when you retire," Ct. Ish said. "There will be plenty of time for dreams like that when you're older."

"If it's ok, can I ask you something?" Lin said. "Was joining the military your dream?"

Ct. Ish hesitated, and then said, "Of course."

"Then that's wonderful for you," Lin said, "But do you wish for anything different?"

"Sometimes," Ct. Ish said slowly, "Sometimes we have to be practical and give up on our dreams and wishes."

"You would know all about that now wouldn't you, Carol?" A deep voice called out to us. It was Mr. Washer. Somehow he'd come in with the crowed to watch the fight without us noticing.

"Darrel?" the Captain said. "Is that…" Carol looked a little red. She regained her professional appearance quickly after. "I'm a captain now Darrel. You'd do best to remember that."

"Sorry, captain." Darrel gave her a mock salute. "But I saw the whole thing. You know what; this feels mightily familiar to me."

"Darrel!" Carol hissed, "That's enough!"

"I seem to remember meeting a girl who had a dream of becoming a member of the elite four, maybe even being champion." Darrel continued. "Of course she sold out that dream for a cushy position on Surge's staff."

"Oh? And what have you done with yourself?" Carol said. "You don't seem to be a gym leader. Are you a waiter or something?"

"A dish washer." Darrel said in-between clenched teeth.

"Ha! Well excuse me then." Carol said. "I'd feel sorry for you, but you got the same offer I did. You choose to follow some silly wish and now look where it's got you."

"At least I'm not a glorified secretary," The dish washer said.

"I challenge you!" Carol was red again but I suspect that it was for a very different reason than before. "Right here right now!"

At this point Lin started backing us away form the angry shouting people.

"Your pokemon is injured!" Darrel said.

"And I have type advantage." Carol said. "This will make it fair. Now get him out here."

"Fine."

Lin and I were off to the side now. Carol and Darrel got to the trainer box on the battle field and sent out their pokemon. That was easy for Carol since Venus was already out their, but Darrel had to pull out his pokeball and toss it out to the field. When the light vanished, I almost said, "Holy charmander, Aza!" the pokemon looked like a charmander just a tad bigger. And by the tad I mean this thing was huge. Not just body size either. The claws and teeth immediately caught my eye, but even the flame on the end of the tail seemed to blaze brighter.

"Venus." The super charmander said.

"Mars," The vaporeon said.

Mars smirked. "You look blue. Something got you down?"

"Nothing a water attack can't fix." Venus said.

"Hidden power!" Carol ordered.

"To the sand!" Darrel said at the same time.

Mars was definitely faster then my evolution. He was half way to the sand before vaporeon even started frilling. As soon as Mars reached the dirt pile, Venus hit the deck with her electric attack. I was about to say vaporeon's attack must have crappy aim when I noticed the electric energy travel through the whole wet deck.

"What just happened?" I said.

"Water conducts electricity." Lin said. "By soaking the deck with surf, she can fill the whole place with electricity."

"_Why didn't she get electrocuted?"_ Aza pulsed.

"Don't know." Lin said. "Hidden power's not a normal electric move."

"Flamethrower!" Darrel said.

Mars unleashed a massive column of flame form his mouth. The pillar hit right besides Venus. At first I thought he had missed too but I realized that he must be drying the deck. Sure enough, Mars spread his flame through the whole arena, leaving it slightly warm but curiously uncharred.

"Surf!" Venus sprayed herself into the air and charged Mars.

"Smoke screen!" Mars opened his mouth and a large black cloud of ash bellowed onto the field. I almost missed what happened next. Venus missed Mars who then twisted around to slash her across her side. I remembered that charmander's scratch attack hurt but this fire type's slash attack looked much grittier.

"Do it Venus!" Carol shouted.

Whatever Venus did or was trying to do, Mars and Darrel didn't wait to find out. "Focus energy!" Darrel cried out. Mars tightened his focus. It seemed like whatever he was going to do next was going to really count.

"Focus energy." Lin aid. "Mar's next attack will-" She stopped when water hit her square on the nose. Then another bit of water splashed against her uniform. When I felt drops of water on me I realized that it had started to rain.

"Rain dance." Lin said. "Venus caused it to rain!"

"No!" Darrel said. "Finish it now Mars!"

"Rest!" Venus's trainer said.

As the fire type rushed towards the eeveelution, Venus closed her eyes. Almost like magic, the wounds she had received vanished. Mars then slashed her so powerfully that he carried her up and over the railing to the arena. Venus was then hurled into the sea.

It was quite for a while. Only the now pouring rain could be heard. The clowds Venus had summoned were covering the little sun this evening had left us.

Then a dark shadow loomed over us all. It was a colossal wave and on top of it was Venus. She brought the wave directly down on the arena. Both Lin and I got even wetter, but otherwise we were fine. Mars on the other hand…

Darrel recalled his sputtering fire type.

"You see," Carol said. "We never stood a chance."

"I'm not saying we could have succeeded." Darrel said. "I'm just saying that you could have tried." And with that, Mr. Washer left.

Ct. Ish watched him go, and then turned to Lin. "My offer still stands." She said, then she, too, walked away.

As Venus started after her trainer, she hesitated. Looking back at me she said, "If she's a real trainer, then she'll listen to you. What do you wish for, Ricochet?" Then she went below deck.

_What do I wish for?_ I thought. _I really don't know._

* * *

That night in the dish washing room was awkward. Mr. Washer didn't say a single word to us and Lin didn't try to start a conversation either. I was too busy thinking about Venus's parting words. Aza tried to crack a few jokes but gave up after no one reacted.

"_What do I wish for?_ I thought. _Lin wants to become the best. Aza already thinks he's the best and wants others to realize it. But why am I here? Am I just along for the ride? If Lin's wish was to become a professional clown would you be just as happy?_

I tried to imagine myself in a rubber nose while doing a tightrope walk. _Ha, no. that would suck._

I thought back to what Lin had said that day she became my trainer. _We will be the strongest. Is becoming stronger what I want?_

I thought about my recent battles and what people had been telling me about my species. _Eevee's are useless in battle. They aren't powerful. They don't learn any great moves. My evolutions do though._

I thought of Venuses abilities. She was able to take massive damage and not faint. She could make it rain on a whim. She could shoot electricity and ride giant waves. What could I do? Hit people with my furry paw? Kick sand into others eyes? Even my most powerful move was Techniquly illegal.

_If I'm going to be the strongest then I need more power. Maybe that's what my true wish is, to become the most powerful pokemon ever?_

The entire room went dark. "So is that a yes or no?"

"What's going on?" I heard Lin say. "Did a light bulb burn out?"

"No," Mr. Washer said. "The lights in the kitchen are all out too."

"They're out everywhere." Aza said. "Everyone in this boat just got very upset."

"Could something be wrong with the electrodes?" Me. Washer said.

"What's an electrode?" I said.

"They're the pokemon that are powering this ship." Aza told me.

"Well let's head out to check." Lin said.

"You'll stay here. I'll go check." I heard some rummaging then a click. Light formed a pillar out into the kitchen. I guess Mr. Washer found a flashlight.

"You're going to leave me in the dark with a bunch of breakable dishes?" Lin said.

Mr. Washer sighed. "Fine, come along. It's probably nothing anyway."

It was definitely something. At a certain point we didn't even need the flash light. The buzzing light from down the hall was enough to see by.

"What in heaven's name?" Mr. Washer and the rest of us reached a door that seemed to glow.

"Darrel!" It was Carol. She was racing down the hall towards us.

"What's going on?" Darrel said.

"Rain dance!" she shouted so she could be heard over the load buzzing. "I agitated a real storm. Lightning must have struck something and aggravated all the electrodes."

"_Well this is going to be extremely uncomfortable." _Aza said.

"What's wrong with an angry electrode?" I said.

"_They tend to explode."_

"Why on earth would humans put them on a ship then?" I yelled.

"Can't we calm them down?" Lin's shrill voice said over the buzzing.

"There's an emergency shut down button inside the room!" Even Darrel's voice was strained. "If I can just…" he reached out and touched the door.

CRACK!

Darrel flew away from the glowing door. I couldn't see what had happened to him but the hallway now had a funny smell. I could also make out Carol kneeling down besides him. She was crying.

"We need to get in there!" Lin shouted.

"_No!" _Aza pulsed. _"We do! Ricochet and I."_

"What?" I said. "Why me? Why can't Venus do something?"

"_She's weak against electricity!" _Aza pulsed. _"She'll get torn apart if she goes in there."_

"Aza!" Lin's voice sounded even more horrible than usual fom all the shouting. "You can't take this kind of damage either! I'll need you to teleport Ricochet in there! It will be up to you after that Ricochet!"

I knew that I didn't have time to argue. Lin let Aza out of his pokeball.

"_Are you ready for this?"_

"NO!"

"_Me neither!"_

Aza put his left hand above my head then pointed his spoon towards the door. I felt the yank in the back of my skull and then the world lighted alive.

The shock of the teleportation protected me from the pain. I got a quick glance around the room.

_There are buttons everywhere!_

Aza collapsed besides me. That's when I noticed that I was being electrocuted to death. Venus's hidden power had nothing on this pain. The entire room was full of the power too. There was nowhere to run; the emergency button was my only option.

_But where is it?_

That's when I noticed Aza's out stretched hand. It was pointed to a big red button. Unfortunately it took me right through the area where the electricity seemed the thickest.

I took a deep breath. "BONZLY!"

The electricity kept moving through my body as I worked my way through the room. When I got nearer to the center I realized why the electricity was thicker there. To my right and left I noticed largish pokeballs with eyes. _And I thought that I couldn't hate pokeballs more than I already did._ It seemed to take me forever to get to them. At first I thought that I was in too much pain put then I realized that I was getting slower. I was being paralyzed.

_No! This can't happen! I can't get paralyzed! I don't have the time!_

But plead as I might, I couldn't get to the center.

_Woohoo._ I thought. _Halfway there._ I didn't understand why that made me so happy. _At least I tried right._ I felt my whole body go numb. Just standing there in the center of power, I knew that I would not last long. Already I was beginning to hallucinate.

"You chose to follow some silly wishes and now look where it's gotten you."

"Why are you here? Are you just along for the ride."

"The deepest wish of my heart…"

"What do you truly wish for Ricochet?"

"I don't know. I want to help Lin. I need to be stronger. I guess I wish I could have been useful. Yeah, I wish I could be useful to the people I care for."

Strength flowed into my body. I felt great, despite the pain. _I can do this! I can reach that button! I've just got to get away from these living pokeballs!_

I tried as hard as I could to get away from the electrodes. To my amazement my body became fluid once again. It was almost as if running away came easier to me.

I zoomed through the room and reached the red button. I slammed myself against it.

The room immediately filled itself with foam. I'm not an electrician but I prayed that the foam stopped electricity and wasn't someone's idea of a practical joke. Arceus answered my prayer by stopping the buzzing and the stabs of pain. Moments latter, Lin opened up the door and started to wade through the room. She quickly recalled Aza then said, "Ricochet! Are you ok over there!"

"I'm fine! Just paralyzed." Then I realized that without Aza, Lin wouldn't be able to understand me. I started to wiggle my body out of the foam so she could see me.

The cavalry arrived shortly after. Medics took Mr. Washer off somewhere. Nurses took Lin and me to some back room to be checked up on. I was given an extra large portion of chancy egg. Or maybe I was supposed to split it with Aza. Oh, well, the world will never know.

As soon as Aza regained consciousness, Lin started to speak, "You guys did great. This is what I mean, all the individuals on the team playing to their strengths. It's got us to safety. I'm proud of you all."

"I wish my part didn't have to end in fainting" Aza said. "What about you Ricochet?"

"I was useful." I said quietly.

We heard a few voices mumbling outside. Seconds latter Ct. Ish came through our door. "Lin, I can't thank you enough. Your cool head and determined pokemon may have saved the live of everyone aboard this vessel."

"We all tried our best Ct," Lin said, "Thanks, though."

"Modesty and humility are good qualities Lin," Ct. Ish said. "Still, once again, you have proven yourselves. Here, I want you to have this." Ct. Ish pulled out her water stone. "I still want you to join the military mind you, but consider this a free gift regardless of your choice."

Lin looked over at me.

"I was useful Lin." I said. "I was."

Lin smiled then turned back to Ct. Ish. "Thank you so much for your offer Ct. that is a generous gift. I don't mean to be rude, but could I possibly ask for something else?"

Ct. Ish was taken aback. "What do you want?"

"Can I get your approval to fight Lt. Surge?"

Ct. Ish hesitated. "Well, I guess I can't say no to you now can I? So be it. I'll set up your battle for tomorrow evening."

* * *

Tomorrow evening came faster than I could have imagined. We didn't have to wash dishes, which was great. Evidently people think that hero's shouldn't be slaving away all day after they just saved a bunch of people's lives. Instead Lin gave as the day to go over strategies and to rest. After all, this was going to be one heck of a fight.

When we emerged on deck we received a standing ovation which, Aza told me, was when a lot of people clap at the same time. Personally, I like the word ovation because it sounds a lot better then saying, 'people-being-noisy.'

Lt. Surge was waiting for us at the center of the arena. "You have my thanks kid. I guess I shouldn't have used you as a bad example."

"We were just the right people at the right time," Lin said. Still I noticed her stand a little straighter.

"Well then, ARE YOU READY!" Lt. Surge boomed, his voice boomed like thunder. The crowd cheered. "Then let's get going! Go pikachu!"

"Go Aza!" Lin said.

Both the psychic type and the fat yellow rattata emerged onto the field. Lin and Lt. Surge studied each others pokemon. I remembered Lin's strategy talks form this morning. There were going to be three key moments in this battle. This was the first. Neither pokemon could take a hit, but they could dish out the damage. This first moment all depended on whether or not Aza was faster.

"Volt tackle!"

"Confusion!"

The pikachus body turned into a living thunderbolt and shot towards Aza. Aza thrust his spoon out. The pikachu collapsed near inches from the kadabra.

"Oh, thank Arceus!" I said. "One down."

"Was there ever a doubt?" Aza said. "I'm passing the baton to you Ricochet. You can beat it."

"Yeah." Aza was recalled and I stepped out. _Moment two, Lt. Surge will have another pokemon before his strongest. I have to take this thing down or Aza won't have enough strength._

"You've got guts kid." Lt. Surge spoke. "I like that. But don't think for a second that I'll go easy on you. Go voltorb!"

I flinched when I saw what emerged form the pokeball. It was… another pokeball. "Ha! It's like a Russian nesting doll."

"_A what nesting doll?"_

"Crap." Lin said.

"That's never a good sign." I said.

Lin ignored my statement of fact, "Quick attack."

I moved with unnatural speed and hit the floating pokeball. I was immediately hit with a blast of energy. Except this was different then any attack I'd felt before.

"Sonic boom." Lt. Surge said. "Eevees may have great defenses but it don't really matter with this attack."

"Take him out as fast as you can Ricochet!" Lin said.

_Great._ I thought. "My strengths are useless so I have to rely on my weaknesses. I used my quick attack again. It didn't really seem to effect the voltorb, but, then again, my attack is only second place to my speed in awfulness. Another sonic boom shook my body.

"No good, girl!" Lt. Surge said. "I'll knock you out at this rate."

"All right then. Ricochet, time to change strategies." Lin said. "Sand attack!"

"Thunder wave!" Lt. Surge said.

The voltorb was too fast. It coated me with electrical pulses that started to shut down my body, exactly as Lin had foreseen. I crunched down on my berry and felt the effects of the paralysis reversing. Then I unleashed a funnel of sand onto the voltorb.

"_I bet you're glad that they filled the arena with dirt for that very attack."_ Aza said by way of explanation.

"Hum. Well I guess I walked into that one." Lt. Surge said. "Get him as fast as you can voltorb!"

The voltorb hit me with another sonic boom but not before I got another quick attack in.

"So your going to roll the dice, are you?" Lt. Surge said. "You want luck to decide who will win this fight? Well sorry, I said that I wanted a flashy fight and that's what I'm gong to get. Self-destruct!"

I'm no word master, but I didn't need a dictionary to know what self-destruct might do. I hesitated before attacking the voltorb to watch it start glowing. Then I really started wishing hard that this attack wouldn't hurt.

It did.

I'm sure that people thought that the boom and bright lights were very entertaining but I wasn't in the mood to enjoy them. Remember when I said that Venuses surf was the most powerful move that I'd ever been hit with? Well never mind that. This was like licking the sun. I think I lost a bit of fur, and that may not have been the aim of the attack.

"Ricochet!" Lin aid. "Are you ok?"

_Ok? Ok! Are you serious?_ My eyes were dried out, my tail was bent again and my back was sore from the landing. And, by landing I mean when the explosion through me into the mast of the ship and ricocheted me, _yes_, _ha-ha_, back into the arena on my back. I struggled to get to my feet. _I was just hit by a bomb._ I stood up and was… fine. "Err, yeah Lin. I guess I'm fine. My body seems to be going bipolar though."

"Ok, get back here." Lin looked at me questioningly.

"That's got to be some ridiculously high defense." Lt. Surge said. "Hum, no…it's got to be something more."

"Are you ready for round three?" Lin said. This time it was her that got the crowd going. I was surprised since I'd almost forgotten about them. Now I could here them chanting. Unfortunately it wasn't our names they were saying.

"Do you want to see power?" Lt. Surge said. The crowd got even louder. "Do you want to see something flashy!" the crowd assured the lieutenant that they did. "Then let's get out raichu!"

One flash of energy later revealed a much more threatening version of the yellow rat. This pokemon looked like a short haired raticate with some serious attitude.

"Go Aza!" the psychic type emerged from his pokeball.

"Ok, Aza. You know what to do."

_Moment three._ I thought. _If Aza's faster, then a confusion or two will do it. He's even got a berry that will help him recover health. If he's slower, then we'll have to rely on thunder's low accuracy. I just hope that Lt. Surge evolved his raichu really early so it didn't learn any fast attacks and only electric ones. No wait, that would just be stupid._

"Now!" the trainers shouted.

The raichu shot a bolt of lightning form its body that moved through Aza's entire body.

"Ah!" Aza screamed. Still he pressed on with his own attack, bombarding the electric type with psychics blows. "That's not thunder shock Lin!"

"That wasn't thunder either." Lin said.

Lt. Surge smiled. "Ladies and gentlemen, revealing for the first time ever, the newest move approved by the elite four and created by me, thunder bolt!"

"Not part of the plan, Lin," Aza said. "That move's way stronger than thunder shock, and it looks to me like it's accurate."

"I know… I need you in there Ricochet," Lin said. I nodded. Lin recalled Aza after he had consumed the berry. "Alright, Lt. Surge, let's see how powerful your new move is! Ricochet, quick attack!"

I slammed my paws into the raichu before he had time to recharge. I knew that I wasn't doing a lot of damage but hopefully I could do enough so that-

My body froze. _No! No! How am I being paralyzed?_

"Looks like your eevee has fallen prey to my raichu's special effect, static." Lt. Surge said. "Now let the beating commence. Thunderbolt him 'til he's unconscious raichu!"

A massive bolt of electricity funneled through my body.

_I've got to get up! I've got to-_ my body refused to move as another thunderbolt crashed into me.

_No, can't end this way…_

Again and again I was electrocuted. Eventually my body started to fail. My mind froze; becoming a simple observer of my body's shut down. I noticed that the noise of the crowed became a monotone hum. My skin felt very sensitive, almost like I could feel each individual strand of fur growing. My ears went numb and my nose started tingling. Then the whole world started getting lighter, beginning at the middle of my vision and then expending outward. It was like it was slowly being erased.

In those last moments my rational mind returned. _I wish I had just a little more time. I wish I could get up just once more. I wish that I had that strength. I wish… for what I need to be useful to my team._

My body healed. It was no imaginary force I felt, the damage I had taken was simply reversed. I couldn't believe it. I was paralyzed still but I felt like I could have taken another round of thunderbolts.

"Is it my imagination?" Lt. Surge said. "Or is your eevee healed?"

"How is that possible?" Lin said.

"It's his wishes." A voice called out of the crowd. Lt. Surge and our team looked over to see Ct. Carol Ish push her way to the front of the crowd. "You told me that your eevee came form the Celadon farm. That place is famous for many reasons. One of these is for the rare moves they've managed to breed into their eevee's!"

"Wish?" Lin said. "Oh-my-gosh Ricochet, you know wish! That's your other technique!"

_Quick attack, sand attack, iron tail and wish?_ I thought. As soon as I did I felt the power click in my brain. It had always been inside of me, but now I knew where it was. Now I could direct it.

"Doesn't matter." Lt. Surge said. "Your eevee's still too weak to beat me!"

"Actually this eevee just won me this match!" Lin said. "Wish, Ricochet!"

"Thunderbolt, raichu!"

The electricity wasn't getting old but I knew now that I had a new power within my will. I activated it. I knew something happened but I didn't feel any healthier.

"Return Ricochet!" I quickly left the ring. "Go Aza!"

"Ha!" Lt. Surge boomed. "You'll never survive another THUNDERBOLT!"

"CONFUSION!"

Psychic and electricity tore through the air. The combination of the two was enough to cause seizures. I had to shield my eyes form the clash. One thing was certain though. The electricity hit before the psychic powers did.

When the firework display died down, the crowd went silent. All watched the two pokemon in the arena. Both were injured beyond words. Only one was standing.

"How?" Lt. Surge said, gazing at his fainted pokemon. "How did your kadabra beat me?"

"Wish doesn't only heal the pokemon that uses it." Lin said. "It's a delayed healing move that heals any allies in the battle field at the time. So you see, you didn't lose to my kadabra, you lost to my entire team."

The crowd erupted into chanting again. This time though it wasn't for Lt. Surge.

* * *

"So you're saying my dad's a smeargle?" I said. "You know how disturbing that is?"

"_Ok, it could be someone in your ancestry."_ Aza pulsed. _"You just had to have inherited it from your father."_

"I'm not sure that having a smeargle as a grandfather is any better." I said.

"Hey, as long as you have the power what does it matter?" Lin said while fondling her third gym badge.

"What if you learned that your mother was a jinx?" I said.

"Good point."

"_The passengers are gone now,"_ Aza pulsed. _"I think we can leave."_

Our team walked down towards Vermilion city. I found the city's small size relaxing. Not every city needed to be as impressive like Cerulean or as important as Viridian. Some of them were just well suited for the purpose they served.

"Hey you two!" It was Mr. Washer. He was on crutches but otherwise seemed fine. "You weren't leaving with saying goodbye were you?"

"You're up!" Lin sounded surprised. "They said you might be out for a week."

"He was always stubborn." Carol said form his side.

"Thank you both for believing in my team." Lin said. "I wouldn't have even had a chance of winning if you both hadn't taken a chance on me."

"I think you had a bigger effect on us than the other way around." Carol said as she squeezed Darrel's shoulder. "Thank you Lin."

"Yes," Darrel said, looking over at Carol. "Thanks."

"_Oh please can we just leave?"_ Aza pulsed. _"You all are making me sick."_

"Really?" I said. "You're getting nauseas?"

"_No, but all this incessant emotion is giving me a headache."_

"Come on, Aza. We've fought ghosts, psychotic drowzees, and overpowered gym leaders," I said. "Compared with that, how bad can a little headache be?"

* * *

…**and I'm a Mormon.**

**Next time on Leaving Home: Lin's team finds out how bad a psychic pokemon's little headache can be.**


	13. Headache

**Author's note:**

**I yawned as I wrote the entire first scene. Sorry if I put any of you to sleep.**

* * *

**Headache**

"Do you like rapidash's?"

"_Don't do it Lin!" _I pulsed.

"It's a trap!" Ricochet said.

Lin answered anyways. "Yeah, I guess."

"I know! Aren't they the greatest!" the man said. "The way they run... the way their tail shines in the sun…the sparkling hooves…"

I yawned. _Well, at least I shouldn't have to translate or talk or anything for a while._ I was still tired from the night before. Then again I haven't slept well for a while now. It was a very different experience for me. As an abra, I slept at least 17 hours a day. Ever since becoming a kadabra, I started keeping normal hours. Except for this last while of course.

I checked back in with the old human.

"They're fluffy and warm to cuddle with…"

I had warned Lin against this. When she told us that she wanted to cut out training early so she could go see this man, Ricochet said sure. I asked why. Lin told me that this man directed the pokemon fan club. Ricochet thought it sounded fun. I told Lin that fans tended to be deranged random fact generators or opinion screamers. As with what usually happens, my better advice was ignored.

_Oh, well. They're paying for it now._ Now we were trapped in a little room with a large, sturdy table with a flower vase as a center piece. _How cliché._

"And the way they smile at the sight of a carrot… and the way they jump over fences…"

"_And the way they communicate in run-on sentences."_ I pulsed to my team.

Ricochet snickered. It looked like Lin tried to suppress her smile with a poorly performed cough or yawn.

"Am I boring you?" the poke fan man said. He looked profoundly irked.

"Not at all!" Lin said in her best interpretation of a sincere voice. As always, her crackly voice derailed her attempt. Instead she sounded like she was choking on sarcasm. "I must not have gotten a lot of sleep last night, that's all."

The poke fan gave her a suspicious look. "If our really a fan, what's the eternal enemy of the rapidash?"

"The oddish." Lin said after some thought.

The poke fan snorted. "And why would you think that?"

"Can you think of any reason it shouldn't" Lin responded.

The poke fan chewed on that for a while.

"_This is getting us nowhere."_ I pulsed, and then yawned.

Ricochet yawned. "Will you stop doing that?"

"_Doing what?"_ I said, yawning again.

"That! Yawning! It's making me…" Ricochet yawned. "See what I mean!"

Lin yawned. "Better oddishes then dewgongs." She said.

"True." The poke fan said.

"How do you yawn anyways?" Ricochet said. "You're concentrated energy. You don't' even have lungs right now."

"_Don't try to make sense of it." _I pulsed. _"You'll just end up hurting your brain. We wouldn't want to be deprived of your wisdom."_

CRASH!

I spread out my psychic senses, trying to locate the source of the crash. _That sounded like broken glass. _I located a flower vase, smashed against the ground.

"What just happened?" Ricochet said.

"Oh!" Lin said. "Did someone bump the table or something?"

The poke fan looked confused. "I could have sworn that vase was in the middle of the table."

"_That's odd."_ I pulsed. _"Maybe-"_

A pain as sharp as nail gorged itself through my head and-

* * *

"Scars?" My father said.

"They tell stories." I said. "They make a person unique."

"Is that the result of meditation or pure reason I hear? Or is it some tripe platitude you've heard from a fool who didn't know better?"

I felt frustration but quickly suppressed it. Were I to express such emotion I would turn this minor bump into a complete disaster.

We were walking through our home. I'd never been outside though my abra visions showed me what it looked like. Anytime my father wanted to talk we just wandered around inside. I couldn't ever understand that. What could one learn at home that you could not learn anywhere else?

"Perhaps it's only something I've heard." I said. "Still I cannot see any harm in scars. They do not appear to have any negative effects on a person."

"And where do scars come from my son?"

"Well a wound and a scar are two different things."

"How so? Can you have one without the other?"

"No."

"If you saw a being with a thin scar running across their arm, what would you deduce?"

"That perhaps the being had been cut by a blade. An arm wound could suggest that the being fought against his attacker."

"And would you consider knowing that good or bad?"

"Good." My father and I came to a stop. The sliding doors to the greater part of our home stood in front of us. It was very quite for a place whose walls were made out of thin slices of wood and paper. The noise would start soon enough though. "Isn't that what I said at the beginning though?"

"No argument is good unless you've thought it out for yourself." Father said. "Now you understand your own argument… It's completely wrong of course."

"How so?" I said. "Wouldn't the living being with the scar on his arm tell a story of a successful fight, or a tale of survival?"

"All I see is a failure to dodge the blow or a failure to avoid the fight altogether." My father said. "Scars are stories of failure."

* * *

"I still don't get it." Lin said. "Why hire a machoke when you could do it yourself?"

"You mean work with my own two hands? That's crazy talk!"

_What? _I thought. I scanned my surroundings. Lin, Ricochet and I were standing in front of a man's property. The man had a machoke stamping on the ground. I could only assume that it was building a foundation of sorts. I would have made a rude but cleaver remark about this but I was distracted.

_How did I get here?_ I wondered. My last memory was at the poke fan's house. _Did I black out? And what was that memory?_

"I'm just saying that you might run out of money before this place is even finished." Lin said.

"This is kind of sad huh, Aza?" Ricochet said.

I was so busy trying to analysis what had happened that I barely paid his question any attention. _"What do you mean?"_

"These humans are so completely dependent on us that they can't even do simple things."

"_Uh hum."_

"I mean, I wouldn't do this work myself. I'd just get Lin to do it."

"_Right."_

"Come to think of it, I really don't do anything except fight."

"_Naturally."_

"Phf! That was the lamest pun ever." Ricochet said. "You didn't even try."

"…_wait, what are we talking about?"_ I pulsed.

"You know, you've been acting strange today." Ricochet said. "You've barely said a single word since Mr. Fan's house. And your jokes have gotten lame."

"_You mean all the things I've been saying since we left the pokemon fanatics house?"_ I pulsed. _"How long ago was that again?"_

"This afternoon. Must have been a couple of hours ago."

I didn't know what concerned me more, the fact that I blacked out for a few hours or that I had been telling lame jokes the entire time. _Ricochet and Lin haven't mentioned any problem with understanding one another so I was translating as well. How odd._ The entire situation was giving me a dull ache in my mind. _It must be an isolated event. I'll analyze this latter._

"Are you calling me fat?" said the owner of the machoke.

"No, no, no. Stop- I mean, that's not what I meant." Lin said. "I'm just saying that you have some strength. I'm sure it's mostly mussel."

"_How did we get involved in this conversation again?"_ I said.

"Heck if I know." Ricochet said. "You know how I tune things out if they don't involve me."

"Oh, so I'm mostly mussel? So if I would work on the house, I'd work off my obscenely obese behind?" the man said.

"You know what? Just forget it!" Lin growled, and then stormed off. As she was leaving she mumbled something about a snorlax.

"_I quite agree."_ I pulsed. _"However, you might want to refrain from saying it so loudly."_

Lin rubbed her head. "You know what? I need to limit my visit time with humanity to one hour a day."

"I know I wish I could." Ricochet joked.

Lin was still laughing when we reached the pokemon center. Pokemon centers are always interesting places. Usually the number of minds can prove to be overwhelming for a lesser psychic, but not for me. I enjoy soaking up all the information the PC can offer. Tonight was different though.

_Lin, if it's alright with you I would like to turn in early tonight."_

Lin yawned. "That's fine. I think we're all a little tired."

"You mean you're all a tired." Ricochet said. "I'm just fine. You both have been yawning all day."

Lin let me out of my pokeball. I was almost relieved to stop using my psychic powers to look at the world. I even walked over to a bed instead of teleporting. After lying down, I closed my eyes. They burned into my skull.

"Uhrg!" I opened my eyes again. "What's that about? I'm so tired that I can't-"

My eyes jabbed twin laces into my brain and-

* * *

It was dark. The city was quite. I stood together with the boy against Reyna and her new partner, the traitor.

Adrenaline surged through my body. Every hair stood on end, readying for action. I know that we're supposed to have a flight or fight option when it comes to this, but with the way I was feeling…

"This is what I should have done from the beginning!" I growled. "And you're going to judge me? You? I hate you!"

The traitor glared at me. It was like a dark hole in my vision; ripping and distorting the world around it. "You're sick." It said.

"Really." The boy said. "She seems perfect to me."

I couldn't say I liked the boy. At this point I didn't like anyone. Still he had been useful. And that jolteon at his side would make this battle even easier.

"Sick or not, I don't care." Reyna said. "You're going to pay for what you've done!"

_This girl is starting to annoy me._ I thought. _And now she's with the monster?_

"Enough talk huh?" the boy said. "Let's get this started!"

I reached for the pokeball containing Gabe. I wasn't sure how his type would fair against the monster but at least he would slaughter that espeon. I would have preferred to use Aza in this situation but-

_Aza?_

I blinked my eyes and glanced around. I was surrounded by people I knew and yet had never met. My hands were empty, even though I was halfway expecting a spoon to be clutched within them.

_Why would I think that?_ I thought. _Oh wait! I'm a kadabra. Aren't I?_

I reached up to scratch the scarf around my neck. _This never happened._

"What's-

* * *

"-going on here?" I said.

"You kicking some serious butt, that's what.' Ricochet said.

"Nicely done, Aza." Lin said. She was standing behind me with Ricochet. She yawned as she said, "You're improving at a very rapid rate. That meowth didn't stand a chance."

_Meowth?_ First I checked myself. I reaffirmed I was a kadabra. _Did I black out again?_ Second, I cursed myself for asking such a stupid question. Third I looked around for the opponent. A small whiskered pokemon with a golden coin stuck to his for head lay unconscious by me.

_Nice to know I can still defeat enemies while unconscious. _I thought. _Still, I feel like I haven't slept since… forever._

It was true. Not only did I feel exhausted, but my headache had upgraded itself to sharp prickling at the base of my skull.

"Well, shall we get going?" Lin said, as she lifted out my pokeball.

"Wait!" I said. Lin and Ricochet looked at me with concern. "I, uhn.. I…" Lin and Ricochet looked at each other questioningly. "I want to walk." I said. Lin and Ricochet looked back on me with surprise and worry.

"Well," Lin hesitated before putting my pokeball back. "Ok, then. Let's keep moving."

Lin started forward on a familiar pass. I recognized this place as the route east of Vermilion. We had spent the last few days training along its twisted paths. Then I remembered that the plan was to head to Fuchsia today.

As Lin passed me, I fell instep behind her. Ricochet joined me, whispering, "Who are you and what have you done with Aza?"

"What do you mean?" I whispered back.

"Come off it." he said. "You've been acting weird all day."

"How so?" I said, not really wanting to hear.

"First all those jokes? I know I teased you about them yesterday, but this morning was ridiculous!"

I glanced up at the sky. _It's almost the afternoon!_ "So the jokes were in poor taste?"

"No they were hilarious." Ricochet said.

_That's a relief._

"But that's all you did." Ricochet said. "Every word that's come out of your mouth or mind or whatever, had been a joke."

_That's not so much a relief._

"Not that I'm complaining about this, but you haven't insulted me at all today."

_That's just unfortunate._

"And now you're walking? What's the deal? You never walk."

"I just needed a break form using my mind. I figured speaking to you was the easiest way to accomplish my goal." I said.

"Ha!" Ricochet said. "Good to see that Aza's come back."

Our team walked in silence for a while. I used to opportunity to examine this last vision.

_I could have sworn that I was Lin in that last vision. Was it the past? That last strange vision was. But I was definitely myself in that one. And didn't Lin mention my name? It had to be a future vision._

I scanned through the people and names of the vision. Reyna, the name Gabe and the jolteon didn't ring any bells but the boy seemed familiar. The strange thing was that I couldn't conjure up any faces. It was as if these beings were more ideas then actual living bodies. The names were clear though. Maybe it was because names themselves are simply ideas given voice. Then there was that thing, that terrible monster. It was… indescribable. I don't mean that as a cop out. It's a bit embarrassing to admit this but whatever that abomination was, it was beyond my ability to understand. Thinking back on it, I didn't want to understand it.

"You're going to regret this!" a male human voice said.

I snapped my head back up which aggravated my headache even more. I saw Lin facing off against a giant pikachu. At first I though that I had blacked out again and was having a vision of Lin on an island filled with giant pokemon robots built for the soul purpose of scamming people out of their money which would go to fund a world wide criminal organization. But then I realized what a stupid idea that was. No, this was just a man in a pikachu costume that, while costing significantly less than a giant robot, was equally as stupid.

"That's dumb." Ricochet said.

"Indeed Ricochet," I said. "Indeed. Well I suppose that I'll be taking care of this."

"No Aza." Lin said. "Let's let Ricochet take the lead on this one."

"Gee, lucky me." Ricochet said as he got into position.

_She knows that something's not right._ I thought.

"Eevee's are so awesome!" the giant pikachu said.

"Hey, I think I like this… wait, no." Ricochet said. "I'm not falling for this again."

"Here's my cute pokemon!" the costumed freak said. "Go magneton!"

The flash of pokeball energy jolted straight through my eyes to the back of my skull. The sharp pricks at my skulls base increased in frequency. _I definitely should have stayed in that pokeball. Either that or invested in sunglasses._

The pokemon that emerged was odd. That's a significant statement considering the wide variety of pokemon I'd seen this one didn't even appear to be alive. It was more machine then anything else. As I looked closer, I noticed that this was similar to the dugtrio, a fusion of three lesser pokemon to reach the next stage.

"Looks like a robot." I said.

"A what?" said Ricochet.

"Robot's are machines that move around and perform services without human direction."

"…You're making that up right?" Ricochet said. "This is just like when you tried to tell me that most of the world is covered with water or that humans can be born with six toes or that there's a pokemon that balances on a pebble."

"Well, at least one of those statements was a lie." I said.

"Ok guys!" Lin said. "Let's do this! Quick attack!"

Ricochet shot forward and tackled the magneton. It didn't' seem very effective. It's trainer ordered the pokemon to use thunder shock. It didn't seem very effective either.

"This is going to be one of those boring battles that I just talk through isn't' it?" I said.

"Magnetons are so annoying." Lin said.

"Hey!" the enormous electric eccentric said. "What do you mean?"

"Really, it's so obvious that magnetons aren't electric." Lin said. "They've got to be double typed."

"There's no proof for that!"

"Really? Here, watch this." Lin ordered ricochet to tackle the mystery type again. Once again the magneton didn't seem very impressed. "See? That hardly did any damage."

"Maybe your eevee's just weak?"

"Maybe you're using that costume to hide your fat butt!" said Ricochet.

"Oh, a weight joke." I said. "Nicely done Ricochet. Always go for the ego."

"Here," Lin said. She motioned for me to step out onto the field. "Let's try this. My kadabra should be able to do tons more damage than my eevee, but watch what happens."

I walked out onto the field, ignoring Ricochets mumbles about not getting a fair shot. I reached the place he just to occupy, then held out my spoon. Psychic power bubbled up form within me. Channeling the power through my spoon I reached out and tried to bombard the magneton form all sides. As I was thus engaged, I noticed that my attacks were being pushed back somehow. _Oh this wont do._ I tried to buckle down and push harder when-

An uncontrollable surge blasted my spoon out of my hand. The utensil jabbed itself into the magneton who surprised everyone by being hurtled towards me instead of away. I had to throw myself to the ground in order to avoid being crushed. I heard Lin grunt in surprise and then a loud thud. As I pushed myself back up, the prickles in the back of my head all accumulated into one giant stake of pain running right-

* * *

"Do you ever miss it?" She said.

I looked over the large field in front of our cottage. _It's so quite here._ I thought. _These fields go on forever. What a perfect peace._ "No." I told my mate. "This, right here, is what I've always wanted, even if I didn't know it."

"But surely you're past was more exciting." She said.

"The excitement wasn't what made it worth the time." I said. "It was the people I was with. Lin, Nausu, Gabe… even Ricochet and Sinclair, the souls are what are most important; the souls and my relationship with them."

"But what of Lin?" She insisted. "Are you ever going to see her again?"

"Lin and I will always be connected." I said. "Wither we want to or not."

"How very sentimental of you." She said.

"You have that effect on me."

I looked over at my mate. She was beautiful. We often sat like this, in front of our home. Our child stumbled around in front of us.

"Speaking of Lin, don't you think it's time we-

* * *

"And then I said to Bullet, 'of course you feel that way. You're purple!" Ricochet said.

"Oh." I said as I came to myself. We were walking behind Lin still. "Right. Great story Ricochet."

"Ok, dude, what's wrong with you?" Ricochet said. "You didn't make fun of me once. You didn't even add any commentary. There's something seriously off."

_He may have a point if even he can tell._ I thought. I scanned over this most alarming vision yet. _Me? With a mate? And a child?_ It just seemed so unlikely. Still I experienced a small bit of frustration that I couldn't recall any faces or even form of the people in these visions. _Maybe the people aren't the message. Maybe it's the names and ideas._ I knew these were just half-baked theories but I couldn't' think through the pulsing headache. It seemed every stimulus caused a wave of pain to wash over me.

"You still with me, Aza?" Ricochet said.

"Yes. What happened this time?" I said.

"Well after you bashed Lin with that flouting magnet, you just started mumbling and didn't even apologize."

"And that surprised you?"

"No, of course not. But then you didn't make a single insulting remark."

"That's odd."

"No, that's scary." Ricochet said. "Anyway, Lin wanted me to keep talking to you till you woke up. You should go up and talk to her."

I refrained from telling him that it was a good idea. I called out to Lin. She was only a few paces in front of us.

"Are you awake now?" Lin said.

"Yes, it seems I've got some explaining to do."

"Darn right you do!" Lin snapped. It surprised me to realize just how angry she was. "You've put his whole team in danger; did you even consider our safety? And what about your own? How could you be so-" Lin stopped short. She took a deep breath and rubbed her face. After a moment she spoke. "Sorry. I guess I'm just cranky."

"Getting beamed by a pokemon can do that," Ricochet said.

"Aza, how long has this been happening?" Lin said.

I thought back. The visions started a while after we docked back at SS Anne. _No, that's not quite true. The first visions started way back in Cerulean. I dreamt of her and the Rocket consecutively. Then there was that night when I tried to enter Lin's mind and almost lost myself. _The pain though, that was more recent.

"I guess I'd been having trouble sleeping right around the time I became a kadabra." I finally said.

Lin nodded like that made sense to her. That sent up a red flag but I was too tired of the pain to think about it.

"Listen." Lin said. "I think this had something to do with you being psychic type. I should have thought of this sooner. I'm sorry Aza."

"Yeah well, I'm sorry too." I said. "Now how are we going to fix this."

"I think we should head back to Lavender town." Lin said. "That or Saffron. Mr. Fuji or Sabrina should know how to fix this."

"I vote for Lavender town." I said. "I'd rather go back there then back to Saffron."

"What do you mean back to Saffron?" Ricochet said.

I mentally cursed Ricochet for having a brief moment of mental clarity at an inconvenient time.

"Then let's go." Lin said, thankfully overlooking my slip.

We started towards the east. The gateway to Silent Bridge couldn't have been more than a half an hour away. After that it was just a short walk to Lavender town. It should have been easy. It should have been.

"Hey you!" a voice called out. "Get over here!"

"Sorry! I don't have time to fight you!" Lin said. We proceeded to keep our pace.

The boy wasn't going to give up that easy. "You can't refuse a battle if you're a trainer!" he called out. I couldn't see him but I could hear his footsteps. He was running after us.

"Lin, he's catching up." Ricochet warned.

"Fine," Lin said. "Let's deal with this creep."

"Ha! You're ready to fight now!" the boy that caught up with us was oddly dressed. He seemed to be dressed in a purple dress with a black belt around his waste. "I knew you would fight me."

"Listen punk," Lin said, "My kadabra-"

"Oh! You're a psychic trainer too?" the boy said. "And you can handle a kadabra? You must be incredible!"

"What are you talking about?" Lin said.

The boy grabbed Lin's unoffered hand and shook. "My name's Lud. I'm training to be a psychic trainer like you."

"Training to be a psychic trainer?" Lin said. "You really need to do that?"

"Yes…" Lud said slowly. "Wait, you aren't a psychic trainer?"

"No, I'm not." Lin said.

"But you have to be a psychic trainer to properly train a psychic type!"

"I thought that was just a rumor."

"Are you nuts?" Lud looked shocked and a little afraid. "It's one hundred percent true. And you're with a kadabra? This is really bad. You need help!"

"Why? What's going to happen?" Lin said.

"When you try to train a psychic type, you two become one mind." Lud said. "And when you open up your mind to someone else, there's no telling what doors can be opened."

"Fine," Lin said. "Let's get to Lavender town. In the mean time you can teach me a few tricks so this doesn't get further out of hand."

"Lavender?" Lud said. "Why there?"

"Mr. Fuji is there." Lin said. "He should be able to help."

"I've never heard of the guy." Lud said. "Anyway, you need help and only real psychics can help you. You've got to go to Saffron."

"Of course." I said.

"Aza?" Lin was concerned, I could see that much. I couldn't tell if she had begun to suspect the cause of my aversion to the city.

"If needs be." I told her. "Let's head out."

Since the quickest way to Saffron was through Vermilion, we started to back track. Lin picked Lud's brain about psychic training techniques. Ricochet was quiet which was a miracle all by itself. Unfortunately even his silence was as a pulsing beacon ravaging my mind. I could barely keep up with Lud's and Lin's conversation.

"When you've reached the headache stage, you know things are bad." Lud said. "Nothing short of a miracle is going to help you then."

"Err… when you say reached, do you mean when my kadabra reached the headache stage or…"

"No, when you start getting headaches." Lud came to an abrupt stop. "You've reached it haven't you."

A part of my mind gears cranked out one last sane thought. Lin's weariness, her understanding of my condition and her resent irritability all pointed to one thing. She was suffering just as much as me.

Just then I felt every cog in my mind go haywire. Psychic energy burst out of my mind, completely out of control. I felt a yank at the base of my skull.

I was standing on a bridge. The world was quiet. The only sound was the gentle lapping of the waves against the beams holding me up.

I saw Lin besides me. Lud and Ricochet were nowhere to be seen. We didn't say a word to each other, Lin and I. we just stood there at the eye of the storm. We were on silent bridge, even further from the ones that could help us.

And then the moment of peace ended.

* * *

Blood. Blood everywhere. _I'm dieing._ I thought. _I'm dieing again._

_The chansey is safe though._ I thought. _Did I manage to get this man killer?_

In the distance I could hear Ricochet calling to me. I tried to say something, to reach out to him. _Ricochet. _I tried to say. _Aza. Be strong._

I couldn't say it. My body was paralyzed. The only thing I could feel was the pain in my back.

* * *

When I came to, the only pain that I could feel was racing up my spine. I was barely coherent. The faint outline of Lin holding my hand as we quickly stumbled across Silent Bridge was the only concrete evidence that I was alive.

The pain in my back clawed its way to my mind. Snapping sounds filled my senses. My only clue as to what those sounds entailed was the sudden weightlessness. The bridge had collapsed. Black water reached out to me.

* * *

I was sitting on a grassy plain. The wind rushed around me. It moved the grass, rolling over it like waves.

"How nice…" I sighed. "I think I want to stay here." I closed my eyes and started to drift off.

"How very sentimental of you."

My eyes shot open. _That voice was so familiar._ I thought.

"Well," it said. "Are you ever going to see her again?" the voice was coming form a small cottage overlooking the field. I felt a tug on my soul, and knew that I needed to reach that cottage or I'd never find the owner to that beautiful voice.

I got up and started to walk over to it. As I got closer, the harder it got. It felt as though the grass beneath me was tugging at my feet. When I looked down I could see that I was sinking. This filled me with dread. Somehow I knew that there was only darkness beneath the grass.

I started running, trying to keep my feet above the ground. The grassy hills got larger, like a choppy sea. The cottage was only a small ways away but I couldn't get to it because every step I took put another wave in my way. I couldn't do it.

_I've lost._ I thought as I started to sink.

"Aza." A voice said. "Be strong."

_That voice is so familiar. _I thought as the ground covered most of my body. _It's… Lin. Lin!_ I felt the gears in my head start to function for the first time in days. _If that's Lin then I'm Aza. And if I'm Aza that means I'm a kadabra. And kadabras can teleport!_

I pictured my destination is my mind, then pulled myself toward it. Every portion of my body disintegrated then zipped through the air. My powers then reformed me on the porch of the cottage. I threw open the door and stepped into the cottage.

_Whoa!_ I was no longer in the cottage, but in a massive gym. The sliding doors were all shut and the only light shown from small candles that I could see silhouetted against the paper walls. All was quite except for the beating of my heart. _My kadabra heart._

I checked myself. Yes, I was a kadabra. _Ok, I'm glad we've covered that. _I was happy to find my headache gone. _Now let's see if I can piece this together. First off, where am I?_ This gym could not be the place it appeared to be. The fact that it was inside a cottage was evidence enough.

_The cottage… wait, I've seen both of these places recently. They were in my earlier visions._ Pieces of the puzzle started clicking into place. _So I must be on some sort of psycho plane. No, this must be my own mind._ It wasn't so far fetched that I had constructed this dojo or the cottage. After all, a cottage in the field is a generic image that required no imagination and this dojo I knew very well. My first instinct was to try to wake up from this vision, but in could feel a presence cautioning me against it. _ Lin, she's in here somewhere. I need to find her first. I heard Lin and… someone else. They helped me. Is it wrong to assume that they meant to do so? Assuming they did, then perhaps the vision can offer me some sort of clue what I'm suppose to do._

I studied the doors about me. They all had picture drawn on them that I could swear weren't there before. Each was a pokemon though a few were pokemon I'd never seen. Of the three doors, I recognized a drowzee and what appeared to be some sort of evolution for a growlithe. The third was a bizarre serpent-like pokemon that appeared to have three heads. Its dark color wasn't as disturbing to me as the size of the beast. It covered the whole door.

_I don't want to go in there, and I'm certainly not going in a door with a drowzee on it. I guess that just leaves this growlithe evolution. _I slid that door open and stepped through to another room nearly identical to the first. When I looked into the room I'd left, I saw nothing but darkness. Some how I knew hat the darkness was final. _I suppose all decisions are final._

Hoping that I hadn't made the wrong decision, I studied the next three paintings. One was squirtle, the other an Alakazam. A strange paradoxical creature adorned the third door. It was black faced yet covered with white fur. What looked like a scythe hung above its head. _Well, I'm not going in there. Besides, I've already got the best guess before me._

I slid open the door with the alakazam in front of it. Once again, the next room had three doors and the room I left held nothing but darkness.

The new room had a purple pokemon with a forked tail, a charmander and an eevee. I tried to come up with a reason to not choose the eevee, but failed.

I walked through this door into something new. This room only had two doors. The one to the left was a chancy. The other was a green and winged pokemon with large blades for hands. For the first time, I was uncertain. _The chancy could be a symbol of healing. The bladed one looks tough. It could be a symbol of protection._

After a while of thought, I remembered the last vision I had before I came into this place. _It was about Lin in pain. She was protecting a chansey wasn't she?_

I opened the door with the chancy on it. The room it led to was dark. At first I though about peaking into the other room but I suspected that I'd find the same. I took a deep breath and stepped into the darkness…

And stepped into a dreary city. It was not a place I recognized. The buildings were so tall that I couldn't see the sky. Strangely, none of the buildings had windows or doors. Instead each wall had colorful murals on them. I stepped closer to one such wall. It appeared to be a painting of a small town square. I spotted a fat man working with a machoke to build a house, a child chasing a meowth, and even a baker of all things. At the town square there was a beautiful fountain with a carving of a starmie shooting out water form each of its points. Many of the townsfolk were either looking at the fountain or playing in it except for one large lady and a dark haired man gazing at each other, a growlithe stood loyally at their side. The sky was clear except for one dark spot in the corner. As I watched the dark spot grew larger and larger till it blacked out the entire picture.

Sensing danger I took a few steps back. It was a good move for the entire building collapsed; in its place stood a pokemon of pure evil. It towered above me, almost as tall as the buildings themselves. It was standing upright with green shell incasing its body. Its large claws on its feet and hands did nothing to distract me from it's powerful jaw. I could see a tail and spikes running down its back.

I didn't stop to see if it was friendly. Somehow I knew that if that thing got me, then that would be it for both Lin and I. I dashed through the streets much faster then I ever thought I could. The pokemon crashed behind me. _It's following me. And it doesn't seem to care about the city. If I don't find what I'm looking for soon, I'll run out of places to run._

But what was I looking for? _It must be the paintings on the walls. I just need to find the right one._

I suppressed my anxiety enough to keep an eye on the paintings that I passed. It was difficult to ignore the crushing sounds of the ever approaching creature. The paintings seemed to be senses from my life. _No, that's not true. These are only scene from my life since I've met Lin._ I recognized a painting depicting my fight with Baku and a portrait of the Rocket. Then I saw a scene of Ricochet fighting a bulbasaure. _These aren't paintings of my life. Theses are scenes from Lin's life!_ And yet I didn't see her in any of the paintings. _Lin's here somewhere. I just need to find her._

I ran down alleyways and boulevards. The sound of the pokemon never dimmed, but was actually growing larger. _He's catching up._ This was, of course, when I spotted Lin's portrait. It was off in an alleyway almost hidden in total darkness. The portrait didn't show all of her; it was only from the waist up. In it she had her back to me, which was bare. She was holding her long black hair in front of her as she looked out to the left, showing only that side of her face.

_Now what?_ I thought.

A memory from a vision responded to me.

"All I see is failure."

A chill ran down my spine.

"Scars are stories."

The chill turned into a gripping pain. I remembered the blood running down my whole body. My back was on fire.

"Scars are stories of failure."

I held my spoon up to the painting and drew a scar across Lin's naked back. The wall dissolved. I could see a small figure huddled in the corner of the building.

"Lin?" I said.

A dirtied face looked up at me. "Aza?" she said.

And then the world shattered. Darkness spread out around Lin and I. the city was no more. The world was no more. The only thing that existed was a door; no… more like a huge section of nothing that was opening. As I looked inside, I beheld an unspeakable monster. It didn't take any form I could describe yet it seemed to be solid and living evil. It was like a dark hole in my vision; ripping and distorting the world around it. It howled as it started to push against the door.

"NO!" I threw my psychic might against the monster. I had to keep it from getting out. What I was doing seemed to work; at least it kept the monster from emerging. Still, I could feel myself began to tire out. I had a bad feeling that the monsters strength wasn't so finite.

"Lin!" I cried out. "Lin, where are you?" then I spotted her running towards the door. She tossed herself against it, and slowly began to close the door. Redoubled by Lin's bravery, I pushed even harder against the monster. As the last of the door closed I spotted the monster eyeing me. It communicated a feeling of patience. It knew that it may have lost this battle, but the war was far from over.

Lin and I shut the door together.

* * *

I woke up dry and warm. Definitely not what I was expecting. I glanced around and discovered a familiar surrounding. Without a doubt, I was in the household of Mr. Fuji. Lin laid besides me in a bed, still unconscious.

"Oh, you're awake!" Mr. Fuji appeared besides me. "You gave me quite a scare you know, teleporting into my house unexpectedly. You two were half drowned. I almost thought you weren't going to make it."

"_Is Lin alright?"_ I tried to say. Unfortunately my mind felt so numb that I couldn't pulse the words to Mr. Fuji. Instead I helped myself up and gazed over her sleeping form. Slowly Lin opened her eyes and sat up in bed.

"I thought I was dead." She groaned. "I had such a weird dream."

"Like I told you before," Mr. Fuji said. "Psychic pokemon are difficult. But it seems the danger had passed."

_Has it?_ I was shocked to find my headache gone. I felt more rested than I had in weeks. "I guess we're ok now."

Lin smiled at me and nodded. "I feel great." The she frowned. "Where's Ricochet?"

"He didn't teleport here with you." Mr. Fuji said.

"He must still be at the route where we left him." I said.

Lin tried to get up but Mr. Fuji gently held her down. "You're still weak. You need to get your rest. I'm sure Ricochet will take care of himself until you find him."

"_Haven't you met Ricochet?"_ I tried to pulse towards Mr. Fuji. I still must have been groggy though because I couldn't get the insult out right. It was a marvel Lin could understand me at all. _No, we're connected. A psychic pokemon and his trainer must share a deep psychic connection to each other. She'll understand everything I do now, as I will her. This must be the first stop to mastering the art of psychic training._

Lin sighed. "Ok. You're right. Can I at least check my books? I want to see if the water damaged them at all."

"I've got it." I said. I spotted Lin's jacket hanging up on a coat rack. I reached out and- nothing. I tried again. Nothing.

"Aza?" Lin said. "Are you OK?"

A sickening feeling crept over me. I opened my mind to my psychic powers. Nothing. My power had vanished.

* * *

"**Insert synonym for end":**

**I just foreshadowed the crap out of you. I hope you keep an eye out for some of these important future events. Like: the destruction of Tokyo by Godzilla. Just remember, in the future when Godzilla actually finishes destroying Tokyo, you saw it here first.**


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